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ILLUSTRATED 

SOUTH AMERICA 



A Chicago Publisher's Travels and 
Investigations in the Republics of 
South America, with 500 Photo- 
graphs of People and Scenes from 
the Isthmus of Panama to the 
Straits of Magellan 



By 

W. D. BOYCE 

Publisher of the "Chicago Saturday Blade" 
and the "Chicago Ledger" 



RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 
CHICAGO NEW YORK 



\ 



Copyright, 1912 

BY 

W. D. BOYCE 



He 









©C!.A33fifi&i 



INTRODUCTORY 

IN ORDER to judge a piece of work fairly, one should know 
the conditions under which it was done. To any one who 
may feel inclined to question the manner or matter of these 
pages, I would like to state that the contents of this book 
was originally "newspaper copy," prepared under extremely 
differing conditions of time, scene and place. The articles 
were written, not in the quiet of a library, but "in the field," 
necessarily varying in style and quality, with the influences of 
the time and surroundings entering into them. They were 
written from sea level to 18,000 feet among the clouds ; from 
the equator to fifty-six degrees south latitude; from regions 
where rain never falls to regions where the rainfall is one hun- 
dred and fifty inches per annum; from sections where men 
wear fur overcoats to sections where men wear almost no 
clothing at all ; they were written on every sort of water craft 
from ocean-going vessels to the crude balsas of the Amazon 
. headwaters ; on almost every species of rail vehicle from a 
luxurious private car to a "caboose" filled with peons ; one was 
written in the midst of an earthquake in Peru, others in the 
midst of a Paraguayan revolution ; some were written in wild 
Indian-inhabited forests of far interior Ecuador, others on the 
silent wheat plains of Argentina, and others among the coffee 
plantations of Brazil ; they were often written sitting up in bed 
at midnight or on "joggling" trains in heat and dust, and some- 
times in the quiet of hotels that were much like palaces ; they 
were written from information gathered all the way from the 
negative and affirmative grunts of Indians to notes made while 
interviewing the President of every South American republic. 
Hence the reader need not be surprised should he find the 
matter "newsy" rather than historic, and the literary manner as 
uneven and changeful as the country and experiences through 
which the writer passed. 

vii 



viii INTRODUCTORY 

The fact that human progress has followed the sun's course 
long since gave rise to the famous phrase, "Westward the star 
of empire takes its way." Round the world from old Asia, 
pressing forward through thousands of years, the rising tide 
of civilization has followed the sunset ; across Western Asia, 
Continental Europe, through the British Isles, across North 
America to the Pacific coast, across the ocean to Japan, and 
across Japan to China, in old Asia, where modern progress is 
now sweeping away the ancient order of things. Having com- 
pleted the circle of the globe, the human stream of civilization 
is broadening, flowing off into the open spaces, chiefly to 
the southward. In Africa and South America is found the 
greatest amount of open or sparsely settled space ; toward 
those fields the human tide of power and progress is flowing. 
Will we presently be saying, "Southward the star of empire 
takes its way ?" Perhaps Certainly, in the centuries to come, 
in Africa and South America great nations will flourish, pos- 
sibly greater nations than the world has ever known ; hence, 
those continents and their opportunities and present state of 
development become vastly important and interesting. 

Because the greater part of South America lies in the 
tropics, the very thought of it arouses the imagination. Like 
Africa, it is a country of astounding contrasts, and for that 
reason invites and interests the traveler. Topographically, 
South America contains enormous table-lands that are beauti- 
ful and tillable, contrasted with almost impassable mountain 
ranges and miasmatic lowlands and vast forest-choked valleys ; 
politically, in some sections statesmanship has changed once 
chaotic elements into peace and order, in other regions the vio- 
lence of revolution is still in action ; socially, there is every 
contrast conceivable from semi-barbarism and peonage to re- 
finement and riches, and from bloody outlawry to the unselfish 
followers of the Man of Galilee. Hence this quarter of the 
world is exceedingly interesting to read about. 

There are numerous special aspects of South America that 
attract travelers. In truth, one can find unusual material there 
for almost any sort of investigation. If one has a preference 
for the study of ancient human groups one can investigate, for 
instance, the strange story of the ancient Incas of Peru, or the 



INTRODUCTORY ix 

Chibcha Indians of Colombia, who seem to have been highly 
civilized when they were discovered, centuries ago, and who 
investigators have thought were, possibly, colonies from pre- 
historic Atlantis, the fabled continent that Plato says was 
submerged in the Atlantic Ocean. If one wishes to study the 
history and effects of conquest, one will find the descendants 
and influences of the Spanish conquerors everywhere in South 
America; if one wants to compare and estimate the effects of 
peace and war, one can find regions torn and ruined by violence 
and revolution, as well as regions that are peaceful and ex- 
ceedingly prosperous ; if one is a naturalist, he can find beasts 
and birds, snakes and bugs, and flowers and trees in South 
America that grace, or disgrace, as the case may be, no other 
part of the planet; if one cares to study men and women one 
will find very handsome human "specimens," both male and 
female, in South America, as well as numerous samples of the 
genus homo that are an affliction to the eye and a shock to the 
mind. Personally, I was chiefly attracted to South America 
by the feeling that it is to constitute the world's next great 
arena of human activity and development. I wished, chiefly, 
to examine its tillable areas, to study its natural resources, to 
estimate its business opportunities, to see what the people were 
like, what were their wants and customs and how the popula- 
tion was distributed, and whether or not the business men of 
the United States were getting their natural and rightful share 
of the trade of this neighboring half of the hemisphere. 

Few people, I believe, appreciate the radical difference be- 
tween the basic human stock of South and North America. 
The Indian race in the southern half of the hemisphere was 
always, by reason of dissimilar food and environment, different 
from the red race of the North ; also, the original pioneer white 
men of South America and North America were totally differ- 
ent in origin, aim and character. The North American Indians 
were a robust meat-eating race, who flourished in a land filled 
with deer, antelope, buffalo and many sorts of game. They 
lived by killing things, and grew big and savage. The South 
American red men developed in a country almost destitute of 
game, hence they were of necessity vegetarians ; there being 
very little to kill for food, they learned to till the soil. As a 



x INTRODUCTORY 

consequence, though less robust, they became in favorable 
regions semi-civilized. Turning to the white man's basic stock 
in North America, we find an honest and pious people, who 
had fled from religious or political persecution, while the pioneer 
white stock of South America was, to be truthful, simply a body 
of Spanish and Portuguese cutthroats and robbers. The South 
American people developed from a fusion of the blood of the 
Indians and these Portuguese and Spanish daredevils, while 
we beat back our Indians and refused to fuse with them. The 
contrast of origins is sharp and clear, the results natural and 
instructive. We have developed a great nation with but one 
real revolution and but one internal war ; the South Americans 
have passed through scores of wars and hundreds of bloody 
revolutions. In regions there are still disturbances, but the 
racial fire is dying down under civilization, the old Spanish- 
Indian blood is beginning to cool. Yet, they remain a dis- 
tinctly "spicy" and picturesque people, and their condition and 
achievements are entirely worth studying. 

To a son of Uncle Sam it is hardly possible to consider the 
southern half of the hemisphere without thought of the 
"Monroe Doctrine," that strong unwritten law which says that 
the Americas are strictly for Americans, that no monarchical 
Government of the Old World shall gain further foothold in 
the New. The idea itself, no doubt, had been long growing 
among the American people, but when President James 
Monroe, in his historic message of December 2d, 1823, flatly 
announced it, the world was astonished. The position he took 
was that American policy was and had been not to interfere in 
the Governmental affairs of the nations of Europe, and that 
a like attitude on the part of European Governments toward 
the republics of the Western World would henceforth be 
demanded. At that time the reactionary Holy Alliance was 
tightening its grip on Europe, and it looked as if the Great 
Powers might countenance Spain in an attempt to reconquer 
her revolting colonies in the Western Hemisphere. Monroe's 
edict put an end to Spain's dream of re-conquest. After that 
the republics of South and Central America stood secure with 
the United States behind them. With the United States virtu- 
ally pledged always to come to their aid at any time should 



INTRODUCTORY xi 

danger threaten them from the Old World, I believe they will 
continue to stand secure until they have worked out their 
destiny. After my long journey and investigation of South 
American countries, I am more than ever impressed with the 
timely wisdom of Monroe's decision and the necessity of con- 
tinuance of his famous "doctrine." 

Before going to South America I confess that my knowl- 
edge of that collection of republics, as with most busy Ameri- 
cans, was not very deep or accurate; besides, having read for 
the most part about their weakness for revolutions, I was not 
inclined to think much of them. However, after over forty 
thousand miles of travel and over a year spent in actively 
studying all parts of the South American continent, I returned 
deeply impressed with the vastness of the resources of that 
country and with grateful and pleasant appreciation of. many 
of its people. 

Something written by a traveler in South America may 
have furnished the first real impulse that resulted in my long 
journey. He said : "The physical features of South America 
are on a more gigantic scale than in North America. Its 
mountains as a rule are higher, its rivers broader and deeper, 
its forests more impenetrable, and these features have pre- 
sented obstacles to man which have daunted and delayed him in 
the conquest of the country. It is as if this continent were 
waiting for a later race of giants, who with scientific and 
mechanical skill superior to any yet achieved, shall be able to 
subdue this richest of all continents, which yet guards its 
wealth so securely." It occurred to me that the "later race of 
giants, with superior mechanical skill," had perhaps already 
been born in the racial melting pot of the United States, and 
ultimately might aid materially in the predicted development. 
Hence my conclusion to "spy out the future land of promise," 
and embody the impressions of what I saw and heard in letters 
to the 5,000,000 readers of my newspaper, The Chicago Satur- 
day Blade, and finally to incorporate them in a book that might 
prove useful to others. 

In assembling my party I reversed the policy followed in 
my African shooting and photographing expedition. In that 
country I had a very large party (nine white men and four 



xii INTRODUCTORY 

hundred porters), but I determined to go to South America 
"light," and, both in luggage and human units, equipped solely 
for efficiency. In leaving the United States I attached to my- 
self a secretary, Mr. W. N. Gulick, of Washington, D. C, 
who spoke Spanish, a South American photographer, Jorge 
Goytesola, of Lima, Peru, and Charlie Pollinaise, my personal 
servant, who was born and reared in the West Indies and spoke 
Spanish, French and several Indian dialects. The United 
States Department of State having furnished me with letters 
to our several legations in the South American republics, and 
having many personal letters to South Americans from my old 
college friend, Charles M. Pepper, Assistant Secretary of 
State, who had spent a year in South America, I took passage 
from New Orleans on December 21, 1910, bound for Colon 
on the Isthmus. I was going on a very long journey indeed. 
As planned, I would skirt Central America on the east, cross 
the Isthmus at the Panama Canal, enter the Pacific and go 
down the west coast of South America, journeying into the 
interior of the republics of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, 
then take passage through the Straits of Magellan to the 
Falkland Islands in the Atlantic, thence northward to Argentina 
and Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, then up the mysterious 
Amazon River, and finally to the Guianas, Venezuela, Colombia, 
and thence to the United States. How nearly I achieved this 
rather ambitious undertaking the reader may judge by turning 
the pages that follow. 

To my secretary, photographer, and servant, I wish to ex- 
press my heartfelt thanks for their faithful assistance, often 
under very trying circumstances. 

Very truly, 




^ 



CONTENTS 

PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 



CHAPTER 

I. SOUTHWARD BOUND 



II. THE CANAL ZONE AND ITS ORGANIZATION 



PAGE 
I 

15 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 

III. A GLANCE AT THE BABY REPUBLIC . 



40 



ECUADOR 

IV. A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS . 



54 



PERU 

V. PRESENT AND ANCIENT PERU . 

VI. ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD . 

VII. THE ANCIENT INCA CAPITAL . 

VIII. HEADWATERS OF THE AMAZON 

IX. JOURNEYS IN SOUTHERN PERU 

xiii 



79 
106 

121 

140 

158 



xiv CONTENTS 

BOLIVIA 

CHAPTER 

X. BOLIVIA AND THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY 



PAGE 
177 



CHILE 

XI. SCENES IN NORTHERN CHILE . 

XII. SANTIAGO AND CENTRAL CHILE 

XIII. IN SOUTHERN CENTRAL CHILE 

XIV. PHASES OF CHILEAN GOVERNMENT 



202 
217 
233 
245 



STRAITS AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 

XV. THROUGH THE STRAITS .... 



258 



URUGUAY 

XVI. SOUTH AMERICA'S BATTLE-GROUND 
XVII. PRESENT-DAY URUGUAY . 



271 
284 



ARGENTINA 

XVIII. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ARGENTINA . 

xix. Argentina's national and commercial 

CAPITAL ..... 

xx. some items of argentinian history 

xxi. touring through argentina 

xxii. Argentina's vineyards and towns 

xxiii. Argentina's agricultural products 

xxiv. racial types and industries 

xxv. the ranches of argentina . 



297 
3IO 

333 
343 
361 

378 
386 
395 



CONTENTS 
PARAGUAY 

CHAPTER 

XXVI. INDIANS, SPANISH, DICTATORS, RESULTS 
XXVII. LOPEZ AND LYNCH .... 
XXVIII. PARAGUAY TODAY .... 



XV 

PAGE 
406 

416 

429 



BRAZIL 

XXIX. brazil's coffee industry 

XXX. BEAUTIFUL RIO DE JANEIRO 

XXXI. HOW BRAZIL BECAME A REPUBLIC 

XXXII. A BRAZILIAN-AMERICAN COLONY 

XXXIII. IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL 

XXXIV. NORTH AND WEST OF RIO . 

XXXV. PARA AND THE AMAZON BASIN . 

XXXVI. THE MADEIRA AND MAMORE RAILWAY 



443 
456 
484 
492 
506 
512 
522 
538 



THE GUI AN AS 

XXXVII. THREE UNIQUE COLONIES 



547 



VENEZUELA 

XXXVIII. AN INTERESTING COUNTRY 
XXXIX. CURIOUS SIGHTS AND FACTS 



565 
589 



COLOMBIA 

XL. HOME OF ALLIGATORS AND ORCHIDS 
XLI. EXPLORING THE INTERIOR 



6lO 
624 




POLITICAL. MA 




SOUTH AMERICA. 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH 
AMERICA 

PANAMA CANAL ZONE 

Canal Zone area, 448 square miles — United States paid Re- 
public of Panama $10,000,000 for it — Panama Railway, 48 
miles long, ozvned by United States — Canal 50 miles in 
length; estimated cost $400,000,000, probable final cost 
over $200,000,000 — People employed in Canal construc- 
tion approximately 35,000, total population within Canal 
Zone about 7 '5,000. 



I 



CHAPTER I. 
SOUTHWARD BOUND. 

N LEAVING the United States I took passage for the 
Isthmus by what is known as the "long route," that is 
to say, a sea course that leads along the coast of Central 
America's five republics, one colony of Great Britain and one 
State of the Mexican Republic. I was going to investigate 
the conditions and resources of South America, yet I watched 
with keen interest the shore line and coast towns of the Central 
American republics as we passed by them. 

It is only human to be curious about our neighbors, and 
the nearer the neighbors live to us the more eagerly we watch 
for moments when their window shades are up. 

At present I will only remark that Central America is 
reputed to be the real home of revolutionists, earthquakes, vol- 
canoes, bananas, tarantulas (both human and entomological), 
and much pleasant sunshine. But it must not be forgotten 
that these things also flourish still farther south. After two 
days on the Gulf of Mexico, the first land we sighted was the 
State of Yucatan, the southeastern corner of (now) Mexico. 
The coast is low, without harbors, and thinly settled. 

Presently we came to British Honduras, a small country. 

1 



2 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

but well governed from England, and with one port of some 
importance. It is called Belize. The grand sport of getting 
up revolutions is distinctly unpopular in this country, and the 
people are prosperous and at peace. Next we came to Guate- 
mala, the most progressive of the Central American republics. 
In Guatemala they take no chances on revolutionary fires break- 
ing out. The method they employ to "squelch" such perils, 
though drastic, is very effective. As soon as the Government 
suspects that an individual harbors a desire to start a revolu- 
tion they promptly take that person out and shoot him. It 
saves a deal of trouble and anxiety, and the Government, no 
doubt, figures that in the end it also saves a great many human 
lives. All telegrams and cablegrams are censored by the Guate- 
malan Government, and it has refused to permit a wireless 
cable station to be installed in the country, being evidently 
afraid it could not tell what messages might be transmitted. It 
seems a bit "hidebound," doesn't it? But they do not have 
revolutions and are quite prosperous. We stopped at Barrios, 
the only port on the eastern coast, where we landed mail and 
passengers. Fourteen of our twenty-four passengers disem- 
barked here to hurry home, the following day being Christmas. 

We spent Christmas at sea off the uninviting coast of Span- 
ish Honduras. It looked to be a "tipped and tumbled country." 
A famous Honduranian once tersely illustrated the topography 
of his country when he crumpled up a sheet of paper and threw 
it upon his desk and said : "That is an outline map of Hon- 
duras." We stopped at Puerto Cortez, the principal seaport on 
the Atlantic coast, and learned that the inhabitants of the coun- 
try were just then, as usual, busy with a revolution, the "ins" 
having canceled all the commercial concessions of the "outs," 
thus ^xciting another, tempest in the much shaken Spanish 
Honduran teapot. 

Six hundred miles after that we were off the coast of Ni- 
caragua, where a successful revolution was fought out three 
years ago. During the progress of that historical ruction the 
United States Government seemed rather partial to the "outs," 
and when the "outs" became the "ins" Uncle Samuel adroitly 
tucked the new President and his Government under the protect- 
ing wing of the American eagle. The significance of this is 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 3 

that if they do not behave themselves Uncle Sam will have 
to step in and straighten things out. Ultimately this will 
probably occur. 

On board our ship there was, naturally, a great deal of dis- 
cussion, pro and con, relative to the Panama Canal. Usually 
the "pros" seemed to have the best of the argument. The 
question frequently arose as to what nationality of men were 
the best fitted for digging the big ditch, and I recall a story that 
was told. Said one Irishman to another : "Say, Patrick, what 
is this they be tellin' me ? I hear ye are thinkin' of goin' down 
to work on the Panama Canal ?" 

"I am," replied Patrick. 

"Sure," said the other, "but you'll find it very hot down 
there, as much as 115 degrees in the shade, they tell me." 

"Well, what of it ?" said Patrick. "Ye don't think I'll be 
fool enough to work in the shade all the toime, do ye?" 

An interesting gentleman, seated next to me at the Captain's 
table, during the voyage, was formerly President of the Re- 
public of Costa Rica. From him I gathered much valuable in- 
formation relative to his country. He had been long absent, 
and admitted that he was returning with a broadened mind, 
and with the hope that his countrymen could be induced to see 
that there was more to be gained by pushing affairs along com- 
mercial lines than in perpetually wrangling over the offices. 

I am prompted at this point to speak critically of the pe- 
culiar policy of my own country in the matter of ocean com- 
merce, since the vessel on which I sailed was a representative 
illustration of the absurdity of that policy. The vessel was 
owned by the United States Fruit Company, a United States 
corporation, commonly called the "Fruit Trust." This cor- 
poration owns and sails under foreign flags over ninety ships. 
These were built abroad, mostly in Scotland, and cost about 
two-thirds of the price of ships of equal tonnage and quality if 
built in American ship yards. In order to avoid the payment 
of duties imposed by the United States they fly foreign flags, 
and have officers who are citizens of and carry papers of 
foreign countries. Yet our United States ship yards compete 
with and undersell foreign countries in building ships for 
foreign navies ! 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 5 

This is a United States corporation, selling all its fruit in 
the United States, and controlling the tropical fruit market 
as completely as the Standard Oil Company has controlled the 
oil business. In the event of war with a foreign nation this 
"Fruit Trust," being a United States corporation, would demand 
and receive protection for its shore property from the strong 
arm of the United States. It is rather an anomaly, isn't it? 
Captain Lamb, our ship's chief officer, was an Irishman ; her 
purser, a Scotchman ; her chief cook, an Englishman ; her flag, 
British ; and her firemen all Chinamen. Doubtless all the com- 
pany's ninety vessels are similarly manned. The questions that 
arise are these : 

1. Why should the ships of a United States corporation 
fly foreign flags ? 

2. Why should our Government be called upon to protect 
the shore property in a foreign country of a Trust that has its 
ships built in other lands ? 

3. Why should not our laws be so made that it would be 
possible to build ships in the United States, fly the Stars and 
Stripes, and officer them with our own brave men ? 

During the two years immediately preceding my journey 
to South America, I had traveled more than fifty thousand 
miles on water, and in that time had been in many of the chief 
ports of the world, but with the exception of vessels belonging 
to our navy, and private yachts, I saw the Stars and Stripes 
floating over only three steamers ! Only three, mark you, out 
of at least ten thousand ships that I saw in different ports and 
passed at sea. 

Our navy, the second in the world, was built and is main- 
tained chiefly on the theory that we should be able to protect 
our "merchant marine." But we have no merchant ships flying 
our flag to protect ! One wonders if, as a people, we Ameri- 
cans are really as wise as we believe ourselves to be. 

Arriving at Colon, the eastern doorway to the gigantic the- 
ater of the Panama Canal, we were soon busy inspecting the 
herculean task the United States has here set itself. After 
some riding about" without seeming to get to the bottom of 
things, I was impressed with the fact that the only honest way 
to really examine the big ditch was to get right into it and 



6 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

walk. An illustrative incident came to my mind. A small boy 
that I heard about wanted to buy a puppy, and went to a man 
who had some for sale. 

"How much do you ask for your little dogs?" he asked 
politely. 

"Two dollars apiece," replied the man. 

"But I don't want a piece — I want a whole dog," was the 
boy's reply. 

We were not after a piece of the canal, but the whole canal, 
so we walked more miles than the reader would probably be- 
lieve in an effort to get the whole truth. 

As an achievement the canal promises to be one of the 
major performances of the human race, and because the 
changes it will likely effect are beyond computation, I fancy 
that a a few paragraphs relative to the history of the barrier 
here being pierced may seem worth the space. 

For centuries it had been a foregone conclusion that some 
nation would ultimately try to cut through the obstruction 
placed by nature in the path of progress at Panama. England, 
Spain, Portugal and France, at different periods seriously con- 
sidered or actually attempted the task. Balboa, famed in his- 
tory as a great explorer and adventurer, touched at the Isthmus 
of Panama in the year 1501. He was a Spanish nobleman, 
who dissipated his fortune, and chose exile from his native 
land to escape imprisonment for debt. In 15 10 he returned to 
the Isthmus, and, history says, married the beautiful daughter of 
a savage Indian chieftain, and thus became a great man in this 
wild country. A year later he made a journey into the interior 
from the Atlantic coast, learning from an Indian chief that 
there was an open sea farther toward the south. This journey 
occupied him twenty-three days, as he traveled over what is 
now known as the Caledonian Canal route. When Balboa re- 
turned to Colon his faithful Indian wife showed him a route 
across the Isthmus, farther to the east, and by this route, in 
15 13, he made another trip, discovering the Pacific Ocean. 
When Balboa reached the great ocean he drew his sword, 
waded into the water and claimed all it contained for his coun- 
try and King. 

Later he managed to take a small ship (it must have been 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 7 

very small) across the Isthmus, by conveying it at one point 
ten miles across land. In 1884 Captain Eads, the great Ameri- 
can engineer, attempted to organize a company to construct a 
canal and ship-railway, the latter to take the ships from the 
water, transport them across a section of land and then put them 
back into the water again. He was simply intending to attempt 
what it is said Balboa accomplished four hundred years before. 
His scheme was no doubt practical. 

In those early days, when the existence of the Straits of 
Magellan was in doubt, the idea of a canal was advanced. The 
first advocate of such a scheme was a Spaniard named Saave- 
dra, a follower of Balboa. He sent his plans to Charles V., 
King of Spain, who was favorably impressed, but hesitated on 
account of the vast expenditure of money involved. His suc- 
cessor, Philip II., was approached on the matter, and he asked 
the advice of the priests, who, it is said, killed the proposition 
by quoting, "What God hath joined together, let no man put 
asunder." 

Antonio Galvao, a Portuguese navigator of note, tells in 
his book of his country discovering, about the year 1550, four 
possible routes for a canal, but the investigators reported such 
extreme difficulties in the way that Portugal went no further 
with the project. 

After that the matter rested in quiet until the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, owing to the discovery of a passage at 
the south end of South America. Then Great Britain took up 
the idea that it would be of great value to her if she could con- 
trol a passage through the Isthmus from ocean to ocean, and 
in 1778 she sent an expedition out under Lord Nelson to make 
a survey. The expedition, however, was not successful and 
the matter was finally abandoned. 

Two concessions for building a canal were given by the 
Government of Colombia to Frenchmen, one in 1825 and the 
other in 1838, but both failed for lack of capital. In 1878 a 
company was formed in Paris by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the 
famous French engineer, and his company secured a concession 
from the United States of Colombia to construct a canal on any 
part of the Isthmus. De Lesseps convened a congress of en- 
gineers, which decided in favor of a sea-level canal from Limon 



8 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Bay to Panama Bay. It was thought the undertaking would 
cost $240,000,000 and they estimated it would require twelve 
years to complete the canal. The company bought control of 
the Panama Railway, built by Americans, for $18,000,000. 
This was a very large sum in those days. However, the fare 
across the Isthmus was $25, and the road had paid in twenty- 
five years over 600 per cent profit. 

De Lesseps had achieved great success in the building of 
the Suez Canal, and those interested with him were confident 
of his ability to repeat his success on the new project. He 
plunged into the work with great enthusiasm, but great as he 
was as an engineer, he lacked other qualifications necessary to 
combat successfully conditions that existed on the Isthmus. 
Deep in the plans of his great enterprise, he apparently paid 
no attention to the health of his men, sending them to work in 
the miasmatic swamps, where they died by thousands. No 
effort was made to improve the insanitary conditions that ex- 
isted, and that alone was cause sufficient to doom the great 
undertaking. 

But there was yet another reason for his failure. His en- 




THE NATIONAL THEATER, CITY OF PANAMA. 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 



gineers and staff lived in the city of Panama, where they gave 
more attention to enjoying themselves than they did to building 
the canal. But the 
insanitary c o n d i- 
tions were not only 
out in the swamps 
where the laborers 
toiled and died, but 
the gay city reeked 
with almost equally 
unhealthful sur- 
roundings. The of- 
ficials and engineers 
failed to protect 
themselves from 
the germ-carrying 
mosquitoes, which 
inoculated them 
with yellow fever 
and many of them 
died as miserably as 
the laborers in the 
swamps. 

De Lesseps had 
projected a sea- 
level canal twenty- 
eight feet deep, 
with a bottom 
width of seventy- 
two feet, and in- 
cluded a tunnel 
through the conti- 
nental divide at 

Culebra. The currents, due to the difference in tides of the 
two oceans, were to be reduced by sloping the bottom of .the 
canal on the Pacific side. The Chagres River was to be regu- 
lated by division channels and a dam below. Later, owing to 
the cost, a plan making locks necessary was substituted. 
Work was continued until 1889, when the company went into 




A CORNER OF ONE OF THE ANCON HOS- 
PITAL BUILDINGS, PANAMA 
CANAL ZONE. 



IO 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



bankruptcy, having spent $300,000,000. It is said that one- 
third of this went for construction, one-third to the promoters 
in Paris, and one-third for the fast living of the officials and 
engineers. 

A new French company took over the old company's rights, 
and continued enough work, principally in Culebra Cut, to keep 
the franchise. In 1904 our Government bought the rights, 
franchise and equipment, which for the most part was simply 
junk, for $40,000,000. Colombia refused to extend to our 
country the other necessary rights and privileges, so Panama, 
then a province of Colombia, seceded and became an inde- 
pendent republic. 

The United States made a treaty with the new republic 
which included the payment of $10,000,000, and an annuity of 
$250,000, the latter to begin nine years after the treaty was 
signed. The United States Government guaranteed the inde- 
pendence of Panama and secured absolute control of what is 
now called the Canal Zone, a narrow ribbon of land ten miles 




ONE OF THE DREDGES ABANDONED BY THE FRENCH CANAL 
COMPANY, PANAMA CANAL ZONE., 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL n 

in width and forty-five miles in length, having an area of 448 
square miles. The United States has jurisdiction over the 
water three miles from either shore of the Canal Zone. This 
means a perpetual lease of all governmental privileges in this 
territory. Its residents, however, do not acquire the rights of 
United States citizenship. 

For the $40,000,000 paid by the United States to the New 
French Canal Company we received the following : 

Excavation by the French, useful to us, valued at $2J,- 
500,000. 

The Panama Railway Company, valued at $7,000,000. 
This was a valuable acquisition, as it made transportation of 
materials easy. Forty-three thousand acres of land went with 
the railway property, and thirty-three thousand acres were ac- 
quired from the New French Canal Company. 

Maps and technical data were valued at $2,000,000; build- 
ings, machinery, etc., at $3,500,000, the whole totaling 
$40,000,000, a really extravagant price. However, when a pur- 
chaser is compelled to have what another possesses just dealing 
is hardly possible. The people of the United States seemed to 
demand that the canal be built, and probably the best price ob- 
tainable was accepted in order that the work might proceed. 

In studying the canal, I observed in many places French 
engines, dredges and other machinery, lying along the route of 
the old canal, overgrown with tropical vegetation and rusted 
beyond the point of usefulness. Possibly it might pay a junk 
firm to remove them, but about that there is some doubt. 

For the $10,000,000 paid to the Republic of Panama there 
was turned over to the United States, in addition to all public 
lands in the Canal Zone, one hundred and twenty thousand 
acres. Therefore, we own 70 per cent of the land in the Canal 
Zone, the remainder being owned by private citizens, mostly 
Panamanians. We exercise governmental rights over all. In 
point of fact, we paid ten dollars an acre for land worth ten 
cents an acre, but perhaps it was necessary. 

An act passed by the United States Congress placed the 
building of the canal in the hands of the President of the 
United States, the direct functions to be administered by a 
commission of seven members, one member to act as chairman. 




T 



!■••<:;, 



i»0B 




VIEWS IN THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE. 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 13 

For convenience the operations have been under the direction 
of the Secretary of War. Until January, 1907, the work was 
preparatory — procuring machinery and equipment, righting in- 
sanitary conditions, getting rid of yellow fever and malaria, 
reconstructing and double-tracking the Panama Railway, build- 
ing houses for an army of five thousand Americans and some 
thirty thousand Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, negro and other 
sorts of laborers. Then a stable civil government had to be 
established with courts, schools, police and fire departments — in 
short, transforming a jungle full of germ-carrying mosquitoes 
and injurious vegetable life into a healthful place in which to 
work. The old French hospital at Ancon was rebuilt and 
equipped with everything of the best known to medicine and 
surgery, that the sick and injured might be properly cared for. 

In this connection I would like to say that I believe the 
money spent, though almost fabulous in amount, will still have 
been well invested, since here has been demonstrated that any 
unhealthful tropical country can be completely freed from the 
diseases common to such a climate by the proper enforcement 
of the laws of sanitation, and protection from the ravages 
caused by the germ-carrying mosquito. The object lesson 
here given the world, and especially other South American re- 
publics, will ultimately have effect upon human progress in all 
the tropics and miasmatic regions, and the benefits accruing, 
finally, to humanity should not be put on a dollar basis. 

All this preparation that I have mentioned took a lot of 
money and two years and a half of hard work. At the same 
time excavation was continued with the French tools, exca- 
vators, locomotives, dump cars and drills. Then modern 
American equipment superseded the inadequate French ma- 
chinery, and since that time the work has gone on rapidly. I 
am presenting the reader with a good many pictures of the 
canal in course of construction, for the time will presently 
arrive when the locks will be completed and the great ditch 
filled with water; then these pictures will become historically 
valuable and of interest to the next generation. 

But, after all, we really owe the building of the Panama 
Canal to three American heroes. Not such heroes as go to the 
front with flags flying and bands playing to face the bullets of 



14 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

an armed foe, but just three quiet, brave army doctors, Reed, 
Lazarre and Carol. These men risked their lives when they 
allowed themselves to be bitten by infected mosquitoes in Cuba, 
and with the observations obtained before they died, aided 
science so greatly in the fight on the germ-carrying insects that 
it became possible to eliminate the dreaded pests from the 
Isthmus so completely that what had been the "hell hole" of the 
world became a place where white men can live and work in 
security. I think it a shame, however, that our Government 
never provided for the widows and families of these three doc- 
tors who died for all of us. 

The canal, when we studied it, was partly completed, and 
after viewing it from Gatun Dam, Culebra Cut, and Pedro 
Miguel locks, and seeing the vast army at work with the great 
dredges and gigantic excavators, the immensity of the whole 
project was very nearly overwhelming. It made me feel some- 
what like the cowboy who started across the Atlantic on the 
gigantic steamer, Mauretania. He was so awestruck by the 
enormous bulk of the steamer and the vast expanse of water 
that he was spellbound until some one inquired what he thought 
of it, when he solemnly replied, "This is sure some skiff on 
some creek !" 



T 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CANAL ZONE AND ITS ORGANIZATION. 

HE United States Government divides its administrative 
functions into two distinct branches, civil and military, in 
the Canal Zone. These governmental departments dovetail to- 
gether so harmoniously that it is difficult for the ordinary ob- 
server to distinguish where one leaves off and the other begins. 
Yet, the reader will have some realization of the peculiarity of 
the situation when he considers that while the cities of Panama, 
with 30,000 population, and Colon, with 20,000 inhabitants, are 
within the boundary lines of the Canal Zone, over which flies 
the Stars and Stripes, they belong to the Republic of Panama, 
and Uncle Sam has nothing to say — out loud — about their gov- 
ernment. 

The Governor's duty is to enforce the civic regulations and 
laws of the Zone. The Canal Commission, the members of 
which are army and navy officers, except the Governor and 
Secretary of the Canal Zone, control the construction of the 
canal. 

To Colonel George W. Goethals, chairman of the Commis- 
sion, the "man who turned white" in his first three years of 
duty in the tropical heat, is due in great part the success of the 
construction and engineering work of the canal, and it is said 
that if he were not held back by our Government, two thousand 
miles away, in administering the canal affairs, work would go 
on faster and the canal would reach completion sooner and cost 
less. 

The United States Government was, at the time of my visit, 
paying out $1,500,000 each month to some thirty-five thousand 
canal employes. Americans and Europeans were paid in gold 
and the Chinese, East and West Indians and negroes were paid 
in Panama Republic silver, worth fifty cents oh the dollar. 
Forty-two tons of silver were paid out monthly. 

15 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 



17 




MR. BOYCE AT CAMP ELLIOTT, PANAMA CANAL ZONE. 



Canal Zone revenues, collected by the Governor, have always 
exceeded civil expenditures. These revenues are obtained from 
real estate taxation and rentals, fines and liquor licenses. Sa- 
loons are allowed at certain points and the granting of licenses 
is under the control of the Canal Commission. The annual 
license is $1,200 gold, and there are some thirty-eight saloons 
within the limits of the Zone. There is, of course, a business 
difference between the Canal Commission selling liquors and 
granting permits to others to do so, but the moral difference is 
not very plain to me. Result — the men get poorer liquor and 
more of it. 

The Zone is well supplied with public schools, there being 
twenty-four in operation, and the education of the children 
seems to be quite as carefully looked after as in the United 
States. The white children have American teachers, who are 
paid from sixty to one hundred dollars a month, while the 
teachers of the colored children are educated Panamanians or 
West Indians. The children are allowed to ride free on the 
2 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 



19 



Panama Railway in going to and from school, to which, as an 
instance of "governmental paternalism," one certainly cannot 
object. 

The fire department of the Zone would command the ad- 
miration of any one conversant with such departments, as it is 
equipped with engines of the most approved pattern. The 
horses are fine specimens brought from the States and South 
America, while the firemen are all men who were trained in the 
United States. 

There are two hundred policemen in the Zone, one hundred 
of whom are white. These men are either ex-policemen from 
the United States or former sergeants of the United States 
army. The black policemen are recruited from the biggest and 
most intelligent of the Jamaicans. There is a large peniten- 
tiary at Culebra, and each police precinct has its jail. Convicts 




WORKINGMEN'S QUARTERS AT CRISTOBAL, PANAMA CANAL ZONE. 



20 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



are condemned to hard labor and are put to work constructing 
highways, a distinct example of progressive ideas. 

I visited the United States marines at Bas Obispo (Low 
Bishop), where four hundred officers and men are stationed. 
The marines are the real guardians of Uncle Sam's property on 
the Isthmus, being ready to start at a moment's notice for any 
place in Central America, if a revolution should break out and 
they should be needed to protect our countrymen or their prop- 
erty. 

The Young Men's Christian Association operates six club- 
houses in the Zone, the buildings occupied having been erected 
and equipped by the Canal Commission. It costs one dollar a 
month to belong to the association, and as the clubrooms have 
gymnasiums, ice cream parlors, billiard rooms, bowling alleys, 
and good libraries, they are real homes to the white canal work- 
ers in their hours of recreation, a decided improvement over 
the old French order of things in this region. 

The houses of the officials are built of wood, the porches 




LABORERS AT LUNCH PANAMA CANAL. 






PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 21 




PEDRO MIGUEL TWIN LOCKS, PANAMA CANAL, LOOKING NORTH. 



and windows being equipped with wire screens to keep out the 
insects. The houses are commodious, well furnished, and are 
made quite beautiful by the tropical flowers which surround 
them. One thing, however, is lacking to complete the picture 
of real homelike places. I refer to the absence of vegetable 
gardens. 

To Colonel W. C. Gorgas and his assistants credit should be 
given for making it possible for men to live and work on the 
Isthmus without danger of yellow fever and other epidemics 
peculiar to a tropical climate. In the extermination of the 
mosquito nearly 3,000,000 gallons of petroleum oil were poured 
on the streets of the cities and towns, and into the lagoons and 
low places of the Zone, during the first year, and this plan has 
been continued ever since. In addition, the cities and towns 
were fumigated, tons upon tons of paper were used to plaster 
up the holes in the walls of houses, and every source of infec- 



22 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

tion was destroyed. The natives of the Isthmus stood aghast 
at the "scouring and scrubbing" Uncle Sam's men gave the 
region, but as the United States was paying the bills they were 
content to keep their hands off and await the outcome. 

The United States also paid for the installation of modern 
sewerage systems in the cities of Panama and Colon, and for 
the paving of their streets. Large, splendidly equipped hos- 
pitals were built at Ancon and Colon, and smaller hospitals at 
all settlements along the route of the canal. The lepers and 
insane had been housed at Miraflores, a station on the Panama 
Railway six miles from Panama City. Colonel Gorgas built 
new quarters for the insane at Ancon, and the lepers are now 
isolated in comfortable quarters up the coast. You see what 
admirable things may be done by a strong and honest man, 
when given power and backed up by a great nation. 

The labor question in the Zone is one of the questions of 
the greatest importance and requires most skilful and arbitrary 
handling, as the laborers area mixed crowd of many nationali- 
ties. While in Uganda, Africa, with my expedition, I was the 
guest of Archbishop Walker of the Church of England Mis- 
sion, and I noticed that whenever a converted negro met a 
missionary on the road, or appeared before him at his resi- 
dence, he always dropped on his knees. About the same 
relationship is sustained in the Canal Zone between the Govern- 
ment officials and the poor men who are really doing the work. 
The employes on the canal are not permitted to accept other 
employment, and if any one should attempt to hire any man 
working, or who wants to work, on the canal, whether the Canal 
Commission has employed him or not, that person is subject to 
fine and imprisonment. 

In nearly every State in the Union it is unlawful for any 
manufacturer, mine owner, or employer of labor, to operate 
what is known as a "company store" to which their employes 
are given orders for goods, provided they have wages due 
them. Not so when your Uncle Samuel goes into business. 
Our Government owns all the stock in the Panama Railway, 
and the railway company operates a commissary department or 
"company store," and every employe on the canal and railway 
is given a "book," or credit for a certain amount on the com- 



I 




ABOVE, SPILLWAY AND FOUNDATION OF GATUN LOCKS. LOWER 
PICTURE, LOOKING NORTH IN GATUN LOCKS. 



24 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

missary department, where they spend their wages for the 
necessities of life. 

In 1910 the "company store" cleared over $200,000. How 
is that for protecting the employes who are digging the big 
ditch? The Panama Railway cleared over $2,000,000 in the 
same year. Wouldn't you like to be a stockholder ? The Pan- 
ama Railway is the only railroad owned by the United States, 
and it is a monopoly, pure and simple, charging five cents a 
mile for passengers, and two cents a pound for every pound of 
baggage, no baggage free. It is a fortunate thing that the road 
is only forty-eight miles long. The policy applied on the Pan- 
ama Railway will not make many converts to Government 
ownership of the railroads of the United States among those 
who are conversant with the operation of this monopoly, for if 
the United States were to take over the roads at home and 
pursue the same course employed in the administration of the 
Panama Railway, it would bankrupt the whole country to pay 
the rates charged for transportation. 

All the hotels and boarding-houses in the Canal Zone are 
under the commissary department of the railroad, which means 
the United States Government. Everything is shipped in and 
all food is from cold storage. You eat frozen fish from the 
States, and yet the best fish in the world are taken right here 
in Panama Bay. In fact "Panama" is an Indian word meaning 
"many fish." The tropical fruit of- Panama cannot be ex- 
celled, yet all fruit is shipped in from the United States. 
Green vegetables grow here as it were over night, yet every- 
thing you get is canned. This is the way a Government does 
business, at least in this case. 

However, it seems to be a natural principle that good and 
evil shall mingle in all things earthly, and notwithstanding the 
disadvantages, the Tivoli Hotel, owned and operated by Uncle 
Sam, is better than many hotels in the United States, being 
clean, sanitary and up-to-date. The manager and assistants are 
from New York, Brooklyn and Dayton, Ohio ; the head waiter 
from Nairobi, British East Africa ; the barber, a German from 
the Philippine Islands ; the waiters, negroes from Jamaica ; the 
guests, all nationalities from everywhere.. 

It will not be difficult to fortify the canal on either the At- 




UPPER PICTURE, CULEBRA CUT, LOOKING NORTH. LOWER PIC- 
TURE, GATUN UPPER LOCKS, LOOKING SOUTH. 



26 ILL USTRA TED SO UTH AMERICA 

lantic or Pacific shores. The channel is very narrow at Colon, 
so that seacoast batteries would have no difficulty in sinking 
battleships that might get by the submarine mines. On the 
Pacific a breakwater will run to Naos Island, five miles from 
the shore ; adjoining are Perico and Flamenco Islands, and on 
Flamenco it is proposed to erect fortifications, and being high, 
it will easily command the entrance to the canal. The guns 
proposed to be used in the fortifications are ten 14-inch rifles, 
twelve 6-inch rifles, and twenty-eight 12-inch mortars. 

There is no question but that the United States should 
have a naval base in the Canal Zone. A station here would be 
invaluable, especially for coal. The only navy yards and docks 
required within one thousand miles of the Zone should be built 
at Panama. With the immense machine shops left over from 
the canal work, when it is finished, we would need little more 
for a complete plant. 

My personal opinion, is, however, that while it will do no 
harm to fortify the canal, it is a needless expense. The United 
States needs the money too much at home for internal improve- 
ments and waterways. Besides, the large expenditure neces- 
sary to fortify the canal would build, equip and maintain a fleet 
of airships and aerial planes that could destroy every navy and 
fort in the world. So I am inclined to propound the old query, 
"What is the use?" 

I have observed several times in my life that when a new 
doctor supplants another in a case, the new doctor is very care- 
ful not to commit a breach of professional ethics, but is just as 
careful not to agree with much that the previous attendant 
said. Being a new "doctor" on the Panama Canal case, I dis- 
like to be discourteous to any writer preceding me, but none 
the less I have several distinctly individual things to say. As 
an analyst seeking the truth, I am compelled to report my honest 
conclusions. 

I did not go over the line of the canal in a private car, 
owned by the Canal Commission and used to show newspaper 
men around, but followed the big ditch from point to point in 
most part on foot ; therefore, what I have to report is matter 
of personal knowledge. 

On June 29, 1906, the construction of an eighty-five- foot 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 



27 



above-sea-level lock type of canal was authorized by Congress. 
The canal, when completed, will be fifty miles long, from ocean 
to oceart. To aid the reader in following my description of the 
construction of the canal the work may be divided into three 
classes : 

First, wet excavation. That is to say, excavation performed 
by dredges, especially from deep water in the ocean to dry canal. 
Second, dry excavation. This includes all material, rock, earth 
and lava ash, removed by steam shovels and other power ex- 




" "V^ #^Wfe 



-'' <■ .- - .-^ 



• *« < - 



■'■.•,■■■•--: 



BANANA TRAFFIC IN THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. 



28 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

cavators, or by pick and shovel, there being very little done by 
pick and shovel. Third, a class of work that covers construc- 
tion of locks, dams and spillways. The dams make the lakes, 
the locks enable the ships to pass from sea level to lake level, 
and vice versa, and the spillways take care of the overflow. 

The construction work has been divided into three divi- 
sions. First, the Atlantic division, extending from deep water 
to Gatun Lake, including the Gatun locks and dam. Second, 
the central division, extending from Gatun to Pedro Miguel. 
Third, the Pacific division extending from Pedro Miguel to 
deep water in the Pacific Ocean. 

The Atlantic entrance of the canal is in Limon Bay, and 
two large breakwaters are being constructed there. The en- 
trance channel is at sea level. It is seven miles long, five hun- 
dred feet wide and continues to the Gatun locks. At Gatun 
the eighty-five-foot level is obtained by a great dam. The lake 
is confined on the Pacific side by a smaller dam between the 
hills of Pedro Miguel, thirty-two miles away. These dams 
will make the lake eighty-five feet above sea level, one hun- 
dred and sixty-four square miles in area. This lake does not 
exist at present and will not until the canal is finished, and the 
Gatun Dam begins to back up the Chagres River. It will be a 
fresh-water lake, and its level will be maintained at a constant 
height by the Chagres and Trinidad Rivers which flow into it. 
A big concrete-walled spillway takes care of the overflow. 

Ships will pass from sea level to lake level, and vice versa, 
by a series of three adjoining locks, each with lifts varying 
from twenty-five to thirty feet, depending on the height of the 
water in the lake and the state of the tide. 

The Gatun locks are in duplicate. They are in pairs, and 
have a width of one hundred and ten feet and a usable length 
of one thousand feet. Each lock consists of a chamber with 
walls and bottom of concrete, and water-tight gates at the end. 
The level of the water in the locks will be regulated by open- 
ings in the bottom and by operation of valves in the side and 
center walls, which allows water to flow into and out of the 
locks by gravity. To make them safe, five devices will be used. 
In all cases and at all times there will be not less than two 
barriers separating a high level from the level below. 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 29 

There are two gates at the upper and two gates at the lower 
end of the upper lock. These double gates will be operated at 
the same time. Another safety device will be an enormous 
chain stretched across the lock near the surface of the water 
and passing around capstans on the walls. This will be so de- 
signed that by the application of frictional resistance it will 
arrest a ten-thousand-ton ship moving at a speed of three 
miles an hour. 

The results of mishaps to the gates and locks are guarded 
against by movable dams above the upper gates. Each dam 
consists of a swing drawbridge from which wicket girders can 
be lowered one at a time, gradually lessening the area of the 
waterway, and is so designed that the flow of water through 
the locks with the gates open could be checked in less than an 
hour. These safety devices— twin locks, duplicate gates, cable 
protection and emergency dams — have all been successfully 
tried on different locks in the United States and abroad. 

When vessels are passing through the locks under their own 
steam it is possible that signals may be misunderstood, and 
sometimes serious mishaps occur. At Gatun this possibility 
will be taken care of by electric locomotives running on the 
walls at the sides of the locks, which, under proper control, 
will tow ships through the locks, one locomotive on each side 
forward and astern. Ships thus towed will not be allowed to 
move their propellers. 

The gates of the locks consist of two leaves, and are big steel 
structures, each leaf being seven feet thick and sixty-five feet 
long. Intermediate gates will be used to save water in locking 
small ships through, these gates being so arranged as to divide 
the locks into chambers five hundred and fifty feet and three 
hundred and fifty feet long. Ninety-five per cent of ships on 
the high seas are less than six hundred feet in length. 

I was climbing a ladder from the bottom of the upper lock 
at Gatun to the wall above, when the chain of a bucket filled 
with rock broke and killed a laborer five feet from me. 

Although the medical and sanitary force has done so much 
to decrease deaths and sickness on the Isthmus, fatalities from 
accidents are large, explosions of dynamite killing and injuring 
large numbers, in addition to the other accidents. In Bas 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 








■■^Sf*<. 



... 



EFFECTS OF AN EARTHQUAKE IN CENTRAL AMERICA, SHOWING 

WHAT MAY SOME DAY HAPPEN TO THE PANAMA 

CANAL LOCKS. 



Obispo Cut one hundred and eighty pounds of dynamite ex- 
ploded, killing thirty-two men. In another accident, a Greek 
who had his arm torn completely off, climbed the hill from the 
cut and was halfway to the Bas Obispo hospital before he 
fainted. A negro who had his trousers blown off fainted and 
was carried to the hospital on a stretcher. When examined by 
the surgeons it was found that the only injury he had received 
was a slight sprain in both knees. It is somewhat difficult to 
secure information in regard to accidents and fatalities, as the 
work is divided into so many sections, and all news is censored, 
but conservative estimates placed the number of lives lost, up to 
the date of my visit, at two thousand. 

Two million three hundred thousand yards of concrete will 
have been placed in Gatun locks and spillway when completed. 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 



3i 



There have been installed two six-thousand-horsepower hydro- 
electric power plants in the Canal Zone. The amount of water 
possible to use in developing electricity will have to be deter- 
mined by actual practice later. 

The water supplied by the rivers is calculated as being ade- 
quate for all purposes. Nine months of the year the rainfall 
is ample; the other three months of the year there is no rain, 
therefore, enough water must be stored each rainy season to 
carry over the dry season. The big storage capacity of Gatun 
Lake, and additional storage up the Chagres River, will take 
care of this. It is intended to allow the water in the lake to 
rise to X 84 at the end of each rainy season, and it can lower 
five and one-third 
feet from this eleva- 
tion without redu- 
cing the depths 
through Culebra Cut 
too low. Gatun 
Lake alone will store 
five feet of water in 
the rainy season that 
can be used in the 
dry season. 

The tonnage pass- 
ing through the Suez 
Canal is about twen- 
ty-one million gross 
tons per year; 
through the Ameri- 
can Sault Ste. Marie 
(Soo) forty million 
gross tons. It is 
calculated that the 
Panama Canal will 
have enough water 
supply for as many 
lockages per day as old dredges abandoned by the french 
can be passed canal company, Panama 

through the canal, canal zone. 




32 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

which is estimated to be forty-eight for the twin locks. This 
would amount to eighty-one million gross tons per annum. 
The Panama Canal cannot hope to pass more than eight million 
tons annually for many years. When I passed through the 
Suez Canal, going to and coming from Africa, we were held up 
eight hours each time, waiting for ships to pass through. The 
Suez Canal is eighty-six miles long. 

Steaming through Gatun Lake to Pedro Miguel, a distance 
of thirty-two miles, ships will go through a channel three hun- 
dred to one thousand feet in width and not less than forty-five 
feet in depth. Throughout the first eight miles no digging is 
necessary, the ground being so low it is only necessary to clear 
away trees and underbrush to make the lake. At Bohio a few 
high points were being leveled off. A channel one thousand 
feet in width continues for fifteen miles from Gatun and ships 
can go at full speed. From Tabernilla the canal continues 
eight hundred feet wide for four miles ; then to Bas Obispo, five 
hundred feet wide for about four miles. 

Many millions of cubic yards of rock and earth were ex- 
cavated by the French between Tabernilla and Bas Obispo, 
but the excavation has since filled up. Between these two places 
the Chagres River in its course crosses the canal at least fifteen 
times. The engineers have built division channels to take care 
of this. At Bas Obispo the Chagres River turns to the north- 
east and the canal enters the nine-mile cut through the Cordil- 
leras (meaning mountains) where the greatest amount of 
excavation has been and is being done. This is the famous 
Culebra Cut. The French began it, and when the United 
States bought out the New French Company the summit near 
Gold Hill was one hundred and ninety-three feet above sea 
level, having been reduced one hundred and forty feet by them, 
making it necessary to cut an additional one hundred and fifty- 
three feet to reach the proper level. 

The formation of the hills and land about is in part lava 
ash, and there are many landslides which seriously retard the 
work and, in my opinion, there will always be trouble at this 
point. The best known slide in the cut is the Cucaracha, just 
south of Gold Hill, and it has always given trouble. 

There are five operations necessary in excavating. These 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 33 

are drilling, blasting, loading, transporting and dumping. If all 
of this had to be done by hand power the Panama Canal could 
not be finished in a hundred years. But with the best of 
modern steam and electrical machinery, tripod drills, steam 
shovels, hundreds of miles of track in the cuts, and quick act- 
ing, self-dumping cars, the work of excavation forges rapidly 
ahead. Besides the above-mentioned appliances over 1,000,000 
pounds of dynamite are used each month. In Culebra Cut 
alone there are over fifty miles of railway track, and about two 
hundred trains are loaded and dumped each day. 

Leaving Culebra Cut, we reached the end of Gatun Lake at 
the Pedro Miguel locks, which will consist of a single set of 
locks, similar in construction to the Gatun locks. The dams 
connecting the locks with the near-by hills on each side are 
small. Next we came to Miraflores Lake, less than two square 
miles in area, fed by water entering with ships from the Pedro 
Miguel locks, and by water from the Rio Grande and Cameron 
Rivers, which flow into it. A spillway is located to the east to 
take care of the overflow. 

There are two pairs of locks with lifts of twenty-seven and 
one-half feet at Miraflores, and from this point there is a sea- 
level channel eight miles in length to Balboa, the Pacific end of 
the canal. There is a fine harbor at Balboa, and they have to- 
day one of the finest docks in the world, owned by the United 
States. It is estimated that a ship can go through the canal, 
when finished, in twelve hours. 

There are many landslides into the canal of hundreds of 
thousands of cubic yards of rock mixed with lava ash. The 
constructors and engineers argue that if this is removed each 
time, eventually these slides will become solid and remain so. 
They do not take into consideration the fact that the ground, 
in some places two and one-half miles from the canal, is cracked 
to a depth of forty feet, and slowly but surely all between is 
creeping toward the channel and sliding into it. I believe it 
will cost nearly twice $400,000,000 before the Panama Canal is 
practical and safe. 

I would not be candid if I did not assert my belief that the 
canal itself is costing twenty-five per cent more than it would 
had it been let to private contractors— under Government in- 
3 



34 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

spection, which would insure the quality of the work and give 
the United States army engineers the practical experience they 
need. The canal work is being run on a war basis, by the 
War Department, in times of peace. 

I spent a good deal of time in the Panama Canal Zone, and 
talked with many people, some of whom worked on the canal 
when the French started and abandoned it, others who had been 
on the work ever since the United States took up the task for 
the benefit of the world. Through using my own eyes, ears, ex- 
perience and judgment, I am fully satisfied that the canal will 
be finished some day, but never operated except at a big loss on 
the investment. Over $1,000,000,000" will have been invested 
by the United States and France. The average time of this 
investment will be twenty years before the canal is really in 
constant use. The interest on $1,000,000,000 for twenty years 
at 5 per cent equals another billion, and, as railroad corpora- 
tions would figure, the investment would be equal to $2,000,- 
000,000. The annual interest on $2,000,000,000 at 5 per cent 
will be $100,000,000. Now, unless the canal earns $100,000,000 
a year, plus the cost of operation, dredging, repairs and depre- 
ciation of railroad, locks, etc., it will be operated at a loss. The 
Suez Canal passes twenty-one million tons a year, and we can- 
not expect that the Panama Canal will equal that for years 
to come. At one dollar per ton, all that the traffic will stand, 
the amount received will hardly pay operating expenses. 

The canal, after all, is only a transportation company for 
boats. It is fifty miles long and will have cost $40,000,000 per 
mile when finished. This is the way any good business man 
or corporation would figure it. 

The theory on which the people of the United States con- 
sented to build this canal was to enable our navy to move 
quickly from one side of the United States to the other coast. 

Navies are built to protect a country's merchant ships. On 
this theory, one second-class cruiser is really all the navy the 
United States needs, since we have almost no ships flying the 
American flag. The United States Congress should either 
make it possible to float an American flag on the water, or 
cease spending our money for warships, or by going into the 
ship transportation business in the shape of a 'canal under the 



36 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

tropical sun thousands of miles from home, when we have no 
merchant marine of our own. The reader will observe that I 
am unequivocally for a United States merchant marine as justi- 
fication for our fabulous expenditure in building the canal and 
a big navy. 

I am aware that my figures relative to the United States 
billion-dollar canal will be questioned. The added billion dol- 
lars of interest charges for the time the money shall have been 
invested, earning nothing, is easy to calculate. But I will prove 
that the United States must expend nearly $300,000,000 more 
than the $400,000,000 now estimated, which, added to the 
$340,000,000 spent by the French, brings the original cost of 
the canal, to say nothing of interest charges, above $1,000,- 
000,000. 

Now for the proof as to the $300,000,000 over the estimates. 
My basic postulate is the character and nature of the materials 
from which the whole country of the Canal Zone is made — 
lava ash. The United States engineers never handled it before, 
the French gave it up. 

In Venezuela there is a lake of pure asphalt, about one hun- 
dred and twenty- five acres in extent, which caused a lot of trou- 
ble. A smart Yankee bought five acres of this lake from the 
English company which owned it, and as fast as he took out 
the asphalt from his five acres, it kept filling up from the bal- 
ance of the lake. Thus he could have taken out all the asphalt 
from one place. While this is not exactly the case with lava 
ash, it is almost true. Did you ever see snow slide off of a 
slate roof? Well, that is the way lava ash and the big stones 
mixed with it come sliding down into the canal. 

Where do I get the $300,000,000 above the present esti- 
mate ? The first Government estimate was less than $200,000,- 
000. It is now $400,000,000. There are twenty miles of cuts 
that average one hundred feet above the bottom level of the 
canal within a distance that exerts a pressure on the material 
through which the walls of the canal are excavated. In order 
to reduce the pressure so water will hold the soil back, experi- 
ence has shown that it is necessary to make a grade of not over 
one foot to seven slope. This, applied to the one-hundred-foot 
average height, gives an additional excavation of seven million 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 37 

cubic yards per mile on each side of the canal for twenty miles, 
or forty miles altogether. Forty multiplied by seven million 
equals two hundred and eighty million yards that the United 
States engineers obviously never figured on removing. Up to 
the present time it has cost about one dollar a cubic yard for all 
material removed. We are better equipped now than when we 
began, but most of this work will be done after the water is in 
the canal, and will cost not less than one dollar a cubic yard. 
There is $280,000,000 of the $300,000,000 more needed. I 
could easily figure up an additional expenditure of $20,000,000 
more for concrete bottoms, walls, and other obvious needs. 
But that would avail nothing. We must go through with the 
task whatever the cost. The reputation of the United States 
is at stake. We are big enough and strong enough and rich 
enough, and too proud to back out as the French corporation 
did when they discovered their mistake. But no corporation 
would, in my opinion, ever have constructed the canal, because 
it will never pay, and nothing but Government capital could 
be used without profit. Again, we must not forget that the 
Panama Canal is the southern boundary line of the United 
States. 

True, we are shortening distance and thereby saving time 
and consequently lengthening human lives. We must take our 
reward and satisfaction in that. And after all, there are nobler 
things both for statesmanship and the individual to consider 
than simply saving money. The final, ultimate effect on hu- 
manity of the expenditure of money by Governments must, of 
course, be considered, rather than whether or not the expendi- 
ture will make returns in cash, for the civilizing and broaden- 
ing of the minds of men is, in the final analysis, the true profit. 

As a final observation relative to the canal itself, I have 
something to suggest. A query naturally arises in the mind as 
to what disposition, after the canal is completed, is to be made 
of the vast equipment of machinery being used in this work. 
The quantity and varied character of the excavating appliances 
to be finally thrown out of use is enormous. Why not employ 
this machinery in the reclamation of the swamp lands of the 
United States? In the Union, according to Government sta- 
tistics, there are approximately 80,000,000 acres of overflow 




SCENES IN CITY OF PANAMA. 



PANAMA CANAL ZONE AND CANAL 39 

lands not habitable or tillable through lack of drainage. The 
reclamation of this tremendous area of soil, it is estimated, 
would ultimately add $4,000,000,000 to the land values of the 
United States, besides providing homes for innumerable people. 
It could also be used to great advantage in building levees on 
the banks of the Mississippi River and other rivers to protect 
our own people at home. 

The machinery being employed in the construction of the 
canal belongs to the United States Government, which means 
that it belongs to the people of the United States. Then why 
could not much of the canal excavating machinery finally be 
floated up to the mouth of the Mississippi River, where great 
areas of swamp lands lie, and under a cooperative arrangement 
between the Federal Government and the States, be put to use 
in the interest of the American people who bought and owned 
this unrivaled supply of excavating tools? Leaving this sug- 
gestion for the reader to reflect upon, we will next turn to con- 
sideration of the Panama Republic itself. 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 

Area in square miles 35,570, or about two-thirds of the area of 
England — Atlantic coast line 478 miles; Pacific coast line 
767 miles; width of country varies from 35 to no miles — 
Mixed population of 340,000 — Capital, Panama City. 

CHAPTER III. 

A GLANCE AT THE BABY REPUBLIC. 

FOR certain inherent reasons the Panama Republic looms 
large in the world's eye. Indeed, for four hundred years 
it has. been a focal point of interest. Its history is not unlike a 
story from a dream book. The old city of Panama was, at one 
period, said to be the richest city in the world, and all over this 
twisted mountainous ridge of land connecting two continents, 
humanity, at one time and another, has fought and struggled 
and had strange adventures. Besides, in time prior to the 
earliest days of which we have history a race of beings of 
whom we know little or nothing dwelt here. In the province 
of Chiriqui, for instance, graves of this ancient people have 
been discovered and opened, yielding small images of solid 
gold, pottery, idols of stone, gold ornaments, gold bells and stone 
and bone implements. Who were the people whose flesh became 
impalpable dust in these graves, and from what quarter of the 
planet came they ? Even the wise archeologist shakes his head 
and wonders. 

The extreme length of the Republic of Panama is about four 
hundred and eighty miles, and it varies in width from thirty- 
five to one hundred and ten miles, its area being 35,570 square 
miles. This is just a little smaller than the State of Kentucky. 
The meandering Atlantic coast line is four hundred and seventy- 
eight miles long, while that of the Pacific is seven hundred and 
sixty-seven miles in length. It has a mixed population that is 
estimated at 340,000 people. 

The President is elected every four years, and the Vice- 
President every two years. The President has but four 
members in his Cabinet, but it is quite probable that additional 

40 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 



4i 



portfolios will be created as their need is felt. There is a 
National Assembly, its members being elected for a term of 
four years, and it holds sessions every two years. An educa- 
tional qualification is demanded of those who exercise the 
right of franchise, all voters being required to be able to write 
their names. 

The old city of Panama, eight miles down the Pacific coast 
line from Panama City of today, is now in ruins. It has never 
recovered from the effects of the raid of Morgan, the pirate, 
and his men, when they sacked the city, stealing everything of 
value and burning most of the buildings. The only thing left 
is the old church tower, a relic of the city's grandeur four hun- 
dred years ago. There are legends of treasure, supposed to 
have been buried here by the famous buccaneer, and occasion- 
ally search is made by hopeful persons, but nothing has ever 
been found. It seems rather unreasonable to believe that so 
insatiable a gang of thieves as were Morgan and his men would 
leave anything valuable behind. 

The political history of the Isthmus of Panama is marked 
with the scars of many a battle and revolution. The most 
bloody conflict of late years was the Civil War of 1900-1902. 
Panama was then a State of Colombia, and this war was 
between the Liberal and Conservative parties. Over fifty 
thousand people were killed in two years of fighting. Back 

in 1885 there was a revolution in 
the city of Colon, which was headed 
by a negro lawyer named Preston, 
who had a band of roughs as fol- 
lowers. They burned the city and 
created a reign of terror for three 
weeks, the end coming 
only when the leader was 
captured and hanged. 

When the Republic of 
Colombia refused to 
grant the United States 
the rights and franchises 
necessary to insure its 
position in constructing 




WHAT REMAINS OF THE CATHEDRAL IN 
OLD PANAMA CITY. 



42 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

the canal — the same as had been granted to the French corpora- 
tion — the province of Panama on November, 2, 1903, declared 
its independence, and all nations, with the exception of Colom- 
bia, soon afterward recognized its independence. 

There was no serious fighting or rioting following the 
secession of Panama. It is true, however, that a Colombian 
gunboat in the harbor before Panama City fired eight or nine 
shots into the city, killing one poor Chinaman who was peace- 
fully lying on his bed-mat smoking opium. Besides the dream- 
ing Chinaman, singularly enough, the champion game-cock of 
the Isthmus, it is declared, was blown to atoms. Nevertheless, 
it was one of the most peaceful secessions recorded in history. 

Panama benefited financially by its secession from Colombia, 
as might be expected. It received $10,000,000 outright from 
the United States, and nine years after the signing of the 
treaty, in which the Republic of Panama granted us the land 
and rights to construct a canal, we are to begin paying them an 
annuity of $250,000. Of the $10,000,000 received from the 
United States by Panama, $6,000,000 is deposited in New York 
banks to afford the posterity of Panama profit from the sale of 
the Canal Zone. Thus Uncle Sam "eats his cake and keeps it" 
(in New York). May he never have indigestion ! Three hun- 
dred thousand dollars, of this above-mentioned $10,000,000, is 
deposited in New York banks to guarantee the parity of gold 
and silver in Panama, keeping normal the ratio of 2 to 1. An 
American gold dollar is held as being worth two silver Pana- 
manian dollars. All the metal money of Panama is coined in 
the United States mint, under a provision in the treaty between 
the two countries. The remaining $3,700,000 of the $10,000,- 
000 has been spent by the Panama Government in building 
schools, a theater, a palace for the President, roads, and in 
other improvements for the benefit of the country and its 
people. 

Harking back to a bit of historic diplomacy it seems rele- 
vant to remark here that three officers of the United States 
army could, if they would, tell an interesting story of a break- 
fast which took place at a country house on the plains outside 
of Panama City, at which were present, besides the three 
Americans, twenty-five of the leading citizens of Panama. It 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 43 

was immediately after this breakfast that the Republic of Pana- 
ma announced its secession from Colombia. It is quite evident 
that the United States Secret Service accomplishes things for 
its country, but it is seldom that its achievements are brought 
to public notice. It was the report of this meeting by the New 
York World, and other newspapers, that caused the suit by 
the United States against those papers. The suit was decided 
in all courts against the Government. 

There are two political parties in the Republic of Panama, 
the Liberals and Conservatives. The Liberals do not believe 
in enforcing the marriage laws of the Catholic Church, nor are 
they hand-in-glove with the Church, as are the Conservatives. 
The Liberal party was in power at the time of my visit, with 
Mr. Arosemena as President. He receives a salary of $9,000 
a year. The Panamanian Government is without an army or 
navy, and has not a cent in the treasury, yet it maintains large, 
costly diplomatic and consular service to represent it all over 
the world. This seems uncalled for, considering the size of the 
country and the smallness of its population, 340,000. 

The Republic of Panama has done everything within reason 
to induce Colombia to recognize its independence, even agreeing 
to pay its share, $1,500,000, of Colombia's national debt of 
$10,000,000, which was contracted when Panama was a State 
of Colombia. Thus far Colombia has refused to recognize 
Panama as an independent nation, and will not receive any 
diplomatic emissaries that Panama has sent to it. 

The matter remains unsettled, and thus far without resort 
to arms. The Panama Republic, having the United States at 
its back, possibly feels somewhat like a certain litigant I heard 
of in Chicago. A lawyer there, for some years a police magis- 
trate, was a natural peacemaker and always endeavored to 
smooth over any slight differences between the persons brought 
before him. Once, when the charge involved was for technical 
assault, it came out in the course of evidence that the parties 
were neighbors, and had formerly been on the best of terms. 

"This is too bad, too bad!" commented the judge. "And 
between such old friends ! Is this not a case that might be set- 
tled out of court?" 

"I'm sorry to say that it can't be done, your honor," re- 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 



45 



marked the plaintiff, seriously. "I thought of that myself, but 
the coward won't fight." 

In the old days Panama City was one of the most disorderly 
cities in the world, robberies, murders and hold-ups being every- 
day affairs. But today it is a quiet, orderly community. Pan- 
ama has a thousand policemen, and three hundred cabmen. If 
one has trouble with a policeman the officer does not stop to 
argue. He simply blows his whistle, and like magic, the of- 
fender is surrounded by ten more policemen and hustled off to 
jail in a real American-made Black Maria. The cabs are all 
old carryalls, importations from the States, and drawn by little 
runts of horses or mules, and the drivers are, in most part, 
Jamaican negroes. One may drive from any point in the city 
to another for ten cents gold. Ten cents gold means ten cents 
in United States money, or twenty cents Panama silver. They 
have no gold coin or paper money in Panama. 

I was invited to a reception on the Japanese battleship, 
Asama, by the Admiral, and left the dock on a launch with the 
President of Panama, Mr. Arosernena. He is a very intelli- 




MUNICIPAL TROOPS OF THE CITY OF PANAMA. 



46 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

gent and cultured gentleman, and we conversed at length on 
general topics, though naturally most of the talk related to his 
country, and I gained valuable information from him. There 
were American and Panamanian ladies aboard the ship, and 
everybody danced and enjoyed the hospitality of the Admiral. 
The guns of the Asama saluted the President when he left, and 
he invited me to go ashore with him in his private launch. 
When we landed at the dock I accepted his invitation and went 
to the Union Club to have refreshments with him and his staff. 
I proposed a toast to the President of the Republic of Panama, 
and he in turn proposed- the health of the President of the 
United States. 

If the United States will make the Panama Canal Zone free, 
meaning free of import and export duties, it will become a dis- 
tributing center for the goods of every country in the world 
when the canal is completed. With the opening of the canal 
ships will go through from every nation, and Panama City will 
become another Port Said, which is today the wickedest city in 
the world, as well as one of the best from a commercial stand- 
point. Boats will bring adventurers of both sexes, who will 
come to ply their trades, having many customers in the thou- 
sands of people who will stop in the city, and Panama City will 
grow as Port Said has since the completion of the Suez Canal. 

Whenever there is a parade in Panama the firemen are the 
prettiest sight of all, as their uniforms are quite striking, being 
made of red, blue and gold. The chief and officers of the fire 
department were attending a ball at the President's palace just 
previous to our advent in the country, when the fire alarm rang ; 
a big fire was raging in a house near the railway station. I 
was told that the chief and officers went to their homes and 
put on their brilliant uniforms before going to lead their brave 
men in fighting the blaze, and when they finally arrived on the 
scene the house was burned to the ground. 

One night a joking American called up the chief of police in 
Panama City on the telephone and told him there would be a 
big earthquake that night, and the chief instructed his men to 
warn all the people to get out of their houses. The Panamani- 
ans rushed out of doors when they heard the warning, carrying 
their most valuable possessions. The Americans who were in 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 



47 




MEMBERS OF THE PANAMA CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT. 



on the joke mixed together a large quantity of differently-col- 
ored Chinese powders, which when set on fire made a colored 
light never before seen, and the frightened Panamanians 
thought for a while that the end of the world had surely come. 
A friend of mine, who attended the last bull-fight on the 
Isthmus, related to me what happened. The managers of the 
bull ring decided to produce something unique in the way of a 
spectacle, something that would thrill the heart and cause the 
hair to rise. To this end they brought a cage containing a 
tiger into the ring, opened the cage and awaited the thrilling 
conflict that they expected would follow. However, the tiger 
only glanced at the angry bull and then bounded up the barriers, 
attempting to climb out of the amphitheater among the excited 
audience. Many of the Panamanians drew pistols and began 
shooting at the tiger. One of the bullets unfortunately hit the 
bull, and he, too, made for the audience. A state of panic en- 
sued, but luckily the police entered and killed both bull and tiger. 
When the excitement had subsided it was found that one poor 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 



49 



peon had been shot in the ear, that being the extent of the 
casualties. 

We wanted to see something of the interior of Panama, and 
in arranging for the trip met a "man from home." He was 
Missourian-born, Californian-raised, and for eight years had 
been in the Canal Zone, formerly working for the Government, 
but was now in the towing business for himself. He had a 
commodious gasoline tug, and I employed him to take us on 
a brief voyage of discovery. He charged us fifty dollars gold 
a day. Others paid him but twenty-five dollars per day for the 
use of his boat. Being from the United States we had to pay 
double. 

We sailed one morning at five o'clock, from the harbor of 
Panama, twenty-five miles across the bay to the mouth of the 
Bayano River, the most navigable river, and succeeded in cross- 
ing the bar at the mouth of the stream at high tide, about nine 
a. m. We spent the day on the river. 

On our return trip the tide was going out and we ran onto 
a big rock that nearly wrecked us. We were stuck fast very 
hard and the boat lay on its side at an angle of forty-five de- 
grees. The tipping of the boat landed everything prepared for 
our dinner in the water, including the table and chairs that 
were on the deck, but by moving the big tanks 
of gasoline to the "high side" of the deck, we 
were saved from turning completely over. 
The crew consisted of the owner, who ran the 
engine, a half-breed pilot and the cook, who 
was a boy apparently not above ten or twelve 
years of age. 

The fright exhibited by the crew when we 
went aground was very amusing, the owner, 
pilot and the boy talking Spanish-Indian, 
gesticulating wildly, and so excited that they 
forgot to stop the engine. I did not under- 
stand their tempestuous talk, but it was just 
as well; without much doubt it would have 
proved unprintable. There was nothing to 
do but wait for the next tide. The photog- 
rapher and Charlie, my colored boy, remained 

NATIVE CHILDREN OF 
A PANAMA. 




5o 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



on deck, while my secretary and I went into the cabin to get 
away from the mosquitoes and insects. But we did not 
better matters at all. About midnight the incoming tide floated 
the tug, and owing to the ballast we had moved to the "high 
side," the boat suddenly turned over on her other side, and 
everybody and everything on the deck went into the river. My 
secretary and I rushed out from the little cabin and aided the 
poor photographer, Charlie and the drenched crew, in their 
spluttering efforts to get out of the water. We reached Panama 
at daylight, feeling that we had had experience enough for 
twenty- four hours. 

While sailing along the Bayano River we passed several 
plantations, owned by American companies, which were from 
sixty to one hundred thousand acres in extent. At San An- 
tonio, the Illinois Lumber Company, of Peoria, 111., has a tract 
of eight thousand acres. I saw machinery there for a sawmill, 
which, on account of the lack of labor, had not been set up. 
Farther up the river the United Fruit Company has a large tract. 




A NATIVE VILLAGE ON THE 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 51 

and just beyond this concession is one owned by some Cali- 
fornia people. 

A new land law of the Panama Government permits the 
purchase of only three hundred acres at a time, and it is my 
opinion that all of the interior lands will remain undeveloped 
until the Panama Canal is finished, when the thirty thousand 
laborers, accustomed to working in the tropics, will be looking 
for homes and employment. Those who have saved money 
will take up land and grow bananas, rice, sugar-cane, etc., and 
those who have not saved will be glad to go to work on the big 
plantations. 

There are great forests of mango trees, which make fine 
railroad ties and piles. I was greatly surprised that the United 
States Government had not utilized the timber of the Isthmus 
in the wood construction on the canal and railway. All the 
piles, ties, and timber of different sorts have been shipped 
from the States, further depleting our scanty forests and swell- 
ing the receipts of the Government line of boats for transporta- 





|^ij 



3AYANO RIVER, PANAMA REPUBLIC. 



52 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

tion charges. Right along the line of the railroad is timber 
enough to make ties for ten lines like the Panama Railway, yet 
all ties are shipped to the Zone from New York. It is difficult 
to understand, save on the hypothesis that somewhere in the 
operation the self-interest of some person or persons is being 
served. 

At the head of navigation of the Bayano River we were 
well into the San Bias Indian country. These natives are 
surly, warlike people, who once a month paddle their balsas 
(canoes or dugouts), filled with rubber and fruits, to Panama 
City to trade or sell. They also bring in the only gold mined 
or found in the republic, but they will not tell where they get it, 
and prospectors in their country, it is said, are shot at with 
poisoned arrows, which is discouraging even to hunters of the 
magic stuff we call gold. 

The principal sports of the Panamanians, since bull-fighting 
has been stopped by law, is cock-fighting. Seemingly every 
male native, from ten years old up, has his prize game-cock, 
and he will wager every cent he has, and sometimes the few 
clothes he wears on his back, that his bird can lick any other 
bird in the country. Sunday and fiesta days are the cock-fight- 
ing days, and as in all Spanish-speaking countries there are 
about ten feast days a month, you see that the Panamanians 
have plenty of time to enjoy their national pastime. 

The lottery in Panama is a great source of revenue to its 
owners and the Government. The orginal concession was 
granted by the Republic of Colombia to run fifty years. The 
men who hold the charter, and it is said the Church owns most 
of the stock, have ten years of the concession still to run. 
When Panama became a republic it granted another concession 
to some Chinamen, but this was taken away from the conces- 
sionaries when they failed to pay one of the capital prizes. 

That the eyes of the world are on Panama and the big 
canal is evidenced by the clever men the various nations have 
sent to represent their Governments in the Republic of Panama. 
Thomas C. Dawson, of Iowa, American minister to Panama 
in 1910, now deceased, was a well-informed man on Latin- 
American affairs, and whenever there was a disturbance in 
any of those countries our Government sent him to represent 



REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 53 

it. Mr. Mallett, the English consul-general, is an able man, 
having had wide experience in Latin-American countries. Mr. 
Frederic Pezet, who represented Peru, is one of the most in- 
fluential men of that nation. He has written several standard 
books on his country, and is well informed on all questions of 
importance. I had the pleasure of dining at his home in Pan- 
ama City, and of meeting his wife, a cultured Peruvian lady. 
There were at this dinner the British minister and his wife, 
Lieutenant-Colonel and Mrs. Goethals, and several distin- 
guished Panamanians. I am glad to state that Mr. Pezet has 
since been appointed to Washington as minister to the United 
States from Peru. 

In here taking leave of the Panama Republic and the Canal 
Zone, I think I may truthfully assert that at present they con- 
stitute quite as interesting a region as may be found anywhere 
on earth. As for the future of this small arena of activity, one 
needs no more than a moderate gift of imagination to forecast 
that the eyes of the world will find it a center of interest for 
many years to come, and perhaps for all time. 

It is frequently said that some day the United States will 
take over the whole republic, but I feel about it like the old 
Tennessee mountaineer. He had never seen a railroad or train, 
and, while camping one evening beside a new railroad track, the 
night express went whizzing by. The roar of the engine, toot- 
ing of the whistle, clanging of the bell, and gleam of the head- 
light were all new to him, as they were to his faithful dog, 
which chased yelping down the track after the flying train. The 
old man called excitedly after the dog: "Come back, Shep, 
come back! Don't try to catch it! I don't know what the 
thing is — neither do you, and I don't know what you would do 
with it, if you did catch it !" The question is, would we really 
know what to do with the Panama Republic if we did take it ? 



ECUADOR 

Area in square miles, 120,000, about three times the size of the 
State of Pennsylvania — Total exports (1010), $13,666- 
371; imports, $8,024,105; exports to the United States 
(ipn), $3,628,805; imports from the United States, $2,- 
238,536 — Chief resources, coffee, rubber, ivory, nuts, cacao 
(chocolate), cabinet woods, Panama hats, Peruvian bark — 
Large mineral deposits, but little developed — Population, 
estimated, 1,300,000, nearly two-thirds Indian — Army, 
peace footing, 4,500, war footing, 05,000 — Navy, 2 ships, 
130 officers and men — Capital, Quito, population, 80,000. 

CHAPTER IV. 
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. 

SOME one has said that it is the uncertainty of women 
that causes men to go "dippy" about them. It is a sim- 
ilar quality, perhaps, that makes traveling to distant and 
unvisited scenes so fascinating. Whether or not one is going 
to arrive, and the changes and unexpected daily newness of 
things on the way, are as uncertain as a woman's moods. The 
illustration is peculiarly pat when applied to traveling down 
the western side of South America, with its visions of glitter- 
ing ocean, green islands, forest-covered headlands, wastes of 
sand and starry nights, as well as hours of fog and puzzling 
days that try one's soul. 

Much to my surprise I found the west coast of tropical 
South America, for the most part, pleasantly cool. Every 
night after leaving Panama we slept under sheets and blankets. 
I have crossed the equator twenty times along the coasts of 
other countries and always suffered from the heat. There is 
a "reason why" for everything, and the explanation of this 
coolness on the Pacific coast of South America is the Hum- 
boldt cold ocean current which, coming from the Antarctic 
Ocean, runs north at the rate of three miles an hour along the 
west coast of this grand division, cooling the tropical heat to 
a degree that is quite comfortable. 

54 



56 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

It is evident from the construction of the ocean coast steam- 
ers of the Pacific that they do not expect to encounter big storms 
or very severe weather, as all the deck staterooms open out, 
like those of river steamers. There is not a harbor in the en- 
tire 4,000-mile stretch of Pacific coast from Panama to the 
Straits of Magellan, where ocean steamers go up to the dock 
to receive and discharge passengers and freight. Buenos 
Aires and Bahia Blanca in Argentina, and Santos in Brazil are 
the only ports in South America where boats drawing twenty- 
three feet of water are berthed alongside the wharf. The 
greatest expense in shipping by water along the coast is 
the loading and unloading of cargoes, for at all ports the big 
steamers lie out in deep water, and passengers and freight are 
taken ashore by small boats. Owing to frequent foggy 
weather, making the port is a very uncertain matter, and as the 
officials at a port will not work after dark, one may lose an 
entire day on account of an hour's delay. 

When there is no mist or fog the air is clear and light, how- 
ever, but there were many days during my voyage when it was 
so dense that no photographing could be done. Owing to the 
absence of cold storage accommodations, the Pacific coast 
steamers, as far south as Lima, Peru, carry live stock on the 
hoof and fowls in cages all the time, and when one awakens in 
the morning the familiar mooing of cattle, bleating of sheep, 
crowing of roosters and cackle of hens, is likely at first to make 
one think he is near a barnyard. One morning, for lack of 
something more exciting to do, I strolled into the "nether re- 
gions" of the vessel and watched them butcher the animals that 
were to furnish the meat for our dinner, and while there learned 
that in counting the cattle on hand that morning it was found 
that there was one more than the day before — a calf having 
joined the herd during the night. At breakfast my waiter 
served me with freshly laid eggs, so you see that with tropical 
fruits and fresh fish added, a passenger on these boats fares 
very well. But the primitive style of carrying provisions, as 
compared with methods employed on the Atlantic liners, is 
little less than startling. 

The first port we stopped at after leaving Panama was 
Buenaventura, Colombia, and a truly tropical scene met my 



ECUADOR 



57 



eye, as I stood at the ship's rail and gazed off toward the city 
of low, red, iron-roofed buildings that seemed to be set in a 
jungle of cane and bamboo, relieved by mango trees. The 
anchor had hardly touched bottom before we were surrounded 
by a fleet of small boats owned by yellow or bronze skinned 
men and women, each one intent on making the stopping of 
our steamer as remunerative to himself as possible. 

Four hundred miles south of Buenaventura, and very near 
the equator, we came to Guayaquil, the port of Ecuador. 

Ecuador is a land of contradictions. The traveler arrives 
at Guayaquil laden with quinine tablets ; he learns that he can 
journey in a day from fever-stricken lowlands to temperate 
plateaux. He brings summer clothing for a country crossed 
by the equator, and nearly perishes from cold on the frozen 
slopes of gigantic peaks. He finds a Government as unstable 
as the volcano-shaken soil ; yet notes that, in spite of quakes 
and revolutions, three important industries thrive on these 
turbulent shores. 

The history of this interesting and little known country 
trails back into the shadowy past. On the Manabi coast hills, 
where the Panama hat 
weavers toil today, arche- 
ologists have discovered 
the sculptured stone seats 
of a prehistoric people. 
The Caras of Quito came 
later and are within the 
reach of oral tradition. 

Ecuador has its Cleo- 
patra. When Huayna- 
Capac, aggressive ruler of 
the Incas, marched north- 
ward to subjugate the 
Caras in the fifteenth 
century, his queen and 
heir remained behind in 
Cuzco. In Quito, the 
Peruvian conqueror fell a 
victim to the wiles of a 



A GLIMPSE OF THE HARBOR OF GUAYAQUIL, 
TTf-TT *nnn 




58 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Cara princess, and to Atahualpa, the son whom she bore him, 
he willed half his kingdom. 

We all know the tragic story of the fall of the Incas — of 
Atahualpa's fate. The proudest race of the Americans was 
enslaved and Ecuador became a colony of Spain. Since then 
Quito, the capital, has been the stage of many a dramatic 
scene from those picturesque days when Gonzalo Pizarro rode 
out of its gates with the first expedition to cross the Andes, 
on down to the bloody atrocities of recent revolutions. 

The land which bears the name of the equator rivals her 
sister republics in variety of scenery and of climate. Her 
feet rest on the dazzling chrome-green shores of a tropic 
river ; her head wears the fleecy crown of eternal snows. With 
one hand she points to the wide Pacific ; with the other to the 
matted jungle of the Amazonian Valley. Colombia, Brazil, 




GENERAL VIEW OF THE WATER-FRONT AND CITY 



ECUADOR 



59 



and Peru are her neighbors, but who can say where the terri- 
tory of the one actually begins and the other ends? 

Ecuador is almost three times the size of the State of 
Pennsylvania, but she has only as many inhabitants as Phila- 
delphia. Nine-tenths of her population live in highland val- 
leys — a mile to a mile and a half above the sea — between the 
two great parallel ranges of the Andes. The greater portion 
of her domain lies in a practically unexplored forest country, 
inhabited by savage and semi-civilized Indian tribes. The 
most o± the early expeditions to the headwaters ot the Ama- 
zon were made from the city of Quito, yet the republican 
descendants of the Ecuadorian Spaniards have shown neither 
the energy to cultivate, nor the nerve to hold, the conquests of 
their sturdy ancestors. 

Commercially, Ecuador is slowly struggling forward. In 
191 1 the total trade amounted to $21,000,000, or $14 per 




OF GUAYAQUIL, THE CHIEF PORT OF ECUADOR. 



60 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

capita. Of this the United States' share was thirty-five per 
cent. Seven-eighths of this commerce passed through the port 
of Guayaquil. 

Guayaquil, the front door of the republic, is notoriously 
unhealthful. This well-earned reputation is brought up to date 
by news of the death by yellow fever of Commander Berto- 
lette, of the United States gunboat Yorktown, while guarding 
American interests during the recent revolution. In the long 
list of victims from this scourge are names of many other 
Americans, among them that of Thomas Nast, the famous 
cartoonist, who served as United States consul at Guayaquil. 

This chief port and metropolis of the country owes its 
commercial importance to its situation on a bank of the broad 
Guayas, the largest river on the Pacific side of the continent. 
It lies near the head of the Gulf of Guayaquil, and its harbor 
is so deep that large ocean-going vessels can steam close to its 
shores, but not its docks. 

The unfortunate people who exist in the miasmatic air of 
this fever trap have only one reason for remaining — an oppor- 
tunity for money making. 

The city stretches for two miles along the west bank of 
the Guayas, presenting an attractive appearance, when viewed 
from the ship's deck, but when personally inspected the illu- 
sion is dispelled. During the rainy season — December to 
June— the fierce sun of the equator glares down between 
showers, coating the stagnant water on every street with a 
sickly green scum. The pretentious vari-colored buildings, 
which line the main streets, prove of flimsy construction, re- 
sembling those erected in our cities for the housing of street 
fairs. This style of temporary construction is indeed but fleet- 
ing, for the town has been burned again and again — with an 
almost complete destruction some dozen years ago, when a 
loss of $20,000,000 was estimated. The city is still poorly 
protected against fire and the prevailing insurance rate is as 
high as seven per cent. 

Guayaquil could easily be made healthful. It lies between 
two waterways, and a series of ditches would permit the high 
tide water from the Pacific to flush it twice daily. Most elab- 
orate plans were drawn and lithographed, some five years ago, 



62 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

for the sanitation of the port, but have not yet been carried 
into effect. 

Since bubonic plague has often broken out in Guayaquil, 
and smallpox and yellow fever are nearly always prevalent 
there, the Panama Commission were alarmed lest one or all 
of these diseases might be transmitted to the canal district. 
Wishing to prevent such a disaster, the commission dispatched 
a trusted physician to Guayaquil with the hope of bringing 
about a more sanitary condition in that city. What followed 
illustrates why Guayaquil remains a menace to the cities of 
the Pacific coast of South America. 

The physician sent by the Canal Commission was received 
and listened to attentively by the Guayaquil city council, and 
they grew so enthusiastic about sanitation that they offered 
him $500 per month to remain with them and superintend the 
work of rendering the city safe from plague. The president 
of the Guayaquil council was also Vice-President of Ecuador. 
The physician from the commission at once began organizing 
the sanitary work, killing rats, and examining them for bubonic 
plague, etc. Presently he discovered a rat that was infected 
by the plague. He reported it to the president of the city 
council, stating that his discoveries indicated that bubonic 
plague was about to break out. To his astonishment the offi- 
cial charged him with having introduced the plague, so that the 
physician might continue drawing his salary. The official 
challenged the doctor to a duel in his rage. The doctor being 
the challenged party had the right of choice of weapons. Hav- 
ing only contempt for the childish stupidity of the official, he 
named a very unusual weapon, nothing less than that himself 
and the official should be inoculated with a new serum for 
bubonic plague, it not yet being surely known if the serum 
would kill the one who took it, or whether or not it would 
render the person immune to the plague, stating, "If we must 
die, let us die in the interest of science." The daring pro- 
posal frightened the official and he withdrew the challenge. 
Later the physician, being unable to effect any benefits to a 
town whose officials were so ignorant and suspicious, returned 
to Panama. 

The Guayaquil and Quito Railway, connecting the port 



ECUADOR 63 

with the national capital, was completed about two years ago, 
crowning the labors of over thirty-one years. This road rep- 
resents an outlay of large sums of money. The first section 
of the line was comparatively easy of construction, but the 
second section, from the Valley of Chauchan to Quito, was 
attended by great engineering difficulties. In 1897, the late 
President Alfaro approved the contract with an American 
syndicate, represented by Mr. Arthur Harman, who under- 
took to construct a permanent right of way to Quito, to put 
the then existing road in good condition, and to make more 
convenient connections between Guayaquil and Duran, the 
town across the Guayas River, which is the railway terminus. 
Six years was fixed as the limit of time required for the work, 
but unforeseen difficulties arose, and eleven years elapsed be- 
fore the line was completed. 

The operation of this railway is expensive, owing to the 
necessity of importing coal from Australia. Coal fields exist 
within forty miles of the main line, and when these beds are 
explored and connected with the railway by a branch line, the 
road should pay handsomely. 

Other railroads of lesser importance have been built or 
are in course of building in Ecuador, but the Guayaquil and 
Quito Railway is, and will long continue to be, the main high- 
way of travel. The journey of 227 miles up to the capital is 
made in two days, a vast improvement over the old mule and 
foot trail on which the weary traveler in former days was 
obliged to spend two weeks. 

Crossing the stately Guayas River to the little town of 
Duran, the railway terminus, it's "All aboard for Quito! — 
Quito, the City of Eternal Spring !" 

For seventy miles we traversed the lowlands, alternating 
between swamp and jungle, plantation and pasture land. 
Herds of cattle browsed shoulder-deep in tall grass. In the 
swampy villages we saw numerous huts resting on piles, only 
the upper story being inhabited. The room below serves as a 
shelter for dogs, hogs, and arrieros (muleteers). 

Then we began to climb, winding, snake-fashion, through 
narrow ravines, across deep gorges up to Huigra, 4,000 feet 
above the sea. From there we simply crept up precipitous 



ECUADOR 



65 




STREET IN QUITO, ECUADOR, ON WHICH ARE SITUATED THE 
PRINCIPAL HOTELS AND NEWSPAPERS. 

mountain walls to "The Devil's Nose," where we backed onto 
a siding to catch our breath and reverse the engine. 

Up, up, toils, tugs, puffs our sturdy engine. We skirt Ti- 
tanic chasms ; the mountain borders loom to the sky. At last 
we reach the table-land and are 12,000 feet above the sea! 

, Chimborazo, Emperor of the Equator, and Cotopaxi, King 
of the Volcanoes, rule here. The greater giant of these peaks 
towers 10,000 feet above the plain, 22,498 feet above the 
ocean's level ! 

Our way then turned across a vast lava tract, then 
through a mountain pass, and we came to a verdant plain, 200 
miles long by thirty miles wide, a wonderful plain, overshad- 
owed by twenty gigantic volcanoes, watch towers of the gods. 
Here lies Quito, the ancient and modern capital, the pulse, the 
heart of Ecuador. 

The name Quito, or Quitu, is of a race of people who in- 
habited this plateau before the reign of the Caras. Tradition 
has it that the Caras came on rafts from Peru, settled on the 
coast and ascended the mountains to conquer the Quitus. His- 
tory repeats itself; Incas gave way to Europeans; Spaniards 
to Republicans. Revolution followed revolution, yet in spite 
5 



66 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



of many changes of rule, of political intrigue and strife, in 
spite even of Nature's kaleidoscopic hand in the shifting 
topography of the country, Quito has preserved her old land- 
marks and customs. Ecuadorians, of the educated class of 
Spanish blood, are in the march of progress ; but the peas- 
antry, the great mass of the people, are of a race of ages long 
past. Seventy per cent of the 80,000 inhabitants of the capi- 
tal are of pure Indian blood. The Quitus still live in Quito. 

The city, of course, has its modern side, its men of culture, 
its pretty dark-eyed women who wear European gowns and 
ride in well-appointed carriages. It has electricity, telephones, 
and rather expensive hotels for a West Coast Latin-American 
city. It has Government buildings, churches, a cathedral, an 
opera house and park promenade. None of these is half so 





:;:;. ,>■ 



A STREET SCENE IN THE TOWN OF AMBAT0, ECUADOR. 



ECUADOR 



67 



interesting to the North American as the old architecture and 
the picturesque natives. We have progress at home, but we 
sadly lack picturesqueness and local coloring. These are the 
great charm of South America. 

The bamboo carrier bearing a load twice his own height, 
plodding over the cobblestones with the aid of two huge 
poles ; the gaudy dancers and betinseled masqueraders who 
follow festival processions; the huge hunchbacks, who prove 
on inspection to be normal men with enormous water jars 
strapped to their backs — such types delight the foreigner. 

And on the narrow city streets, overhung with little Old- 
World balconies, a strange, scantily clothed creature is now 
and then seen among the town Indians and mestizos. He is of 
the Napo River tribe, from far across the Andes. 

The vast forest country beyond the Royal Range is called 
La Region Oriental — "The 
East." It is a wilderness, 
its only roads the flowing 
rivers rushing down to the 
Amazon. Here Orellana 
passed on his way to dis- 
cover the "King of Rivers" 
in the fifteenth century. 
We really know little more 
now of its people than he 
and his companions ob- 
served. 

The Napo River folk, 
who occasionally venture 
up to the highlands and 
civilization, are Christian- 
ized Indians. They speak 
Quichua, the universal lan- 
guage of the Andean high- 
landers, and they eat salt. 
These are the two great 
characteristics which place 
them in the class of Indios, 
or "tame savages." The 

INDIAN, WIFE AND CHILD, 
MANABI, ECUADOR. 




68 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




GROUP OF ANISHIRI INDIANS, ON THE ARABELA RIVER, NAPO, 
ECUADOR. 



wild tribes, the Infeles, or infidels, cannot speak Quichua and 
eat no salt. The highlanders fear and scorn them. 

Of the wild hordes, the Zaparos, occupying the territory 
between the Napo and Pastaza Rivers; the Jivaros, Piojes, 
Iquitos Mazanes and others — few travelers can speak authori- 



ECUADOR 



69 



tatively. Even to the average Ecuadorian, "La Region Orien- 
tal" is almost unknown. 

Another little known and most interesting territory belong- 
ing to Ecuador is embraced in the Galapagos group of islands, 
about one hundred and forty miles westward in the Pacific. 
The total area of these lava rocks is 3,170 square miles, with 
a population of less than five hundred. When discovered, in 
1535, these islands were uninhabited, but were soon the resort 
of buccaneers, whalers and a few white settlers from the 
mainland. The cotton, tobacco, and other plants introduced 
by these colonists now run wild, as do also cattle, horses, dogs, 
goats and other imported animals. 

Of deep interest to zoologists is the native fauna of these 
islands. A gigantic tortoise, two strange kinds of lizards, 
snakes and land birds of a distinct species, were discovered 
here by the famous naturalist, Darwin. This isolated develop- 
ment was one of the striking facts which ultimately led to the 
great scientist's conclusions regarding the origin of species, 
and from that on to the modern theory of evolution. 

But not the scientists only have an eye on the Galapagos 
Isles. Uncle Sam covets them. Here lies one of the logical 
points in the Pacific for the defense of the Panama Canal. 

The opening of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama 




A PLANTATION SCENE ON THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, POSSESSIONS 

OF ECUADOR. 



7o 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



sounds the bugle call of 
West Coast development in 
South America. Ecuador 
will then have an oppor- 
tunity to "join the proces- 
sion." Her great resources 
are yet to be developed. She 
needs white settlers, par- 
ticularly in the "Oriental" 
region, and more railroads. 
Above all, she needs peace. 
Her vast domain — from 
Andean peak to jungle, 
from rich pasture land to 
lava rock — is in need of a 
stable government. And 
we might also pray for a 
prevention against vol- 
canoes. 

Ecuador leads the world 
as a cacao producer. Her 
crop last year amounted to 
two hundred billion beans, 
an amount, it is estimated, 
sufficient to furnish every 
person in the United States 
with thirty-six cups of 
chocolate. America heads 
the list as a cacao con- 
sumer. Coffee and tea were 
brought to our shores from 
the Old World, but cacao 
is indigenous, a native product of all tropical America. The 
Aztecs of Mexico made a drink from it in prehistoric times, 
and their name, chocolatl, was corrupted by the Spaniards into 
cacao. We have changed only one letter of the old Aztec 
word, but it is as cacao, rather than as chocolate, that the 
product is known throughout much of the world. 

The cacao beans of commerce resemble lima beans in size, 




CACAO, OR CHOCOLATE BEANS, IN 
PODS ON TREES, ECUADOR. 



ECUADOR 



/i 



and are embedded in the pulp of the melon-like fruit, which 
grows on good-sized trees. The oval-shaped fruit varies in 
color from yellow and brown to red and purple. A tree may 
bear fruit, flower and blossom at the same time. Cacao can 
be profitably grown on only a comparatively small area of the 
world's surface, twenty degrees north and south of the equa- 
tor. A large part of the cacao of commerce is the product of 
cultivated trees. 

In Ecuador I observed that the young trees were shaded 
by banana plants and, whenever possible, were grown on the 
hillsides, as drainage is an important feature. A cacao tree 
produces usually in three years, and in five years yields from 
one to two pounds of beans. As it grows older and larger its 
yield is, of course, greater. 

The gatherer severs the fruit from the tree by means of a 
pruning-shaped knife attached to a long pole, and allows the 
pods to remain on the ground for a day or two. The pulp is 
then removed from the beans. On the up-to-date plantations 
of Ecuador modern machinery is used for this part of the 
work, but simple primitive methods are more often in vogue. 
The beans are sun-dried on stone patios and turned often 
that they may dry evenly. Lacking a patio, the native spreads 
his beans out on the 
ground in front of his 
hut, and even makes use 
of the village street. 

Until the present time 
Ecuador has been fairly 
free from the scourge 
which has attacked the 
cacao groves of several 
other countries of the 
world. Its trees seem 
of a hardier variety. 

The traveler who \&, 
walks along Guayaquil's 
crowded water-front 
learns at first hand the 
importance of this in- 

TAGUA NUTS, OR VEGETABLE IVORY, IN 
THE UNPICKED PODS, ECUADOR. 




72 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 





SCENE ON A TAGUA PLANTATION, ECUADOR. 
NUTS IN SACKS. 



PLACING THE IVORY 



dustry, which amounted to $8,000,000 in 191 1, four-sevenths 
of the total value of the exports. Every other building seems 
to be a warehouse, piled high with cacao bags. Great numbers 
of lighters, laden with this product, ply between the shore and 
ships in the great harbor, the departure of the seeds of the 
cacao trees of the Land of the Equator to fill cups with choc- 
olate in the far countries of the world. 

I thought that I still reflected the brilliant green absorbed 
from the verdant shores of the Guayas, when I first landed in 
Guayaquil ; for one of the first remarks made by the Ameri- 
can consul seemed to stamp this condition as evident. 

"How is business?" I asked. 

"Well," he replied, "only fair. The cacao harvest is aver- 
age, tut the button crop is practically a failure!" 

"The button crop!" I thought I was being "joshed." 
Surely my letter of introduction deserved better treatment 
from the consul. Though I might reflect the green of the 



ECUADOR 



73 



tropics, I was hardly "tenderfoot" enough for a joke like 
that. 

"Button crop a failure? Well, that's bad." I now had 
regained my breath. "Strange, these calamities ! Up the coast 
at Panama the heavy rains 
ruined the macaroni crop !" I 
said. 

The consul looked up 
oddly, then broke into a 
laugh. "Oh, I see !" he said. 
"You don't understand. But- 
tons, you know — they're our 
vegetable ivory; tagua; nuts 
from a palm tree ; from the 
'inside country.' We few 
English-speaking people call 
'em 'buttons' because they 
become, eventually, the but- 
tons of commerce." 

Well, this was a surprise! 
In my youthful days I had 
heard much of "Button, but- 
ton, who's got the button?" 
but I never dreamed it was a 
palm tree. Still the consul 
was right. 

The clothes of the world 
today are buttoned with 
ivory nuts, and Ecuador is 
the leading producer. Her 
tagua crop in 191 1 was 
valued at $1,700,000, ranking 
next to her cacao. 

The palm which produces 
the ivory nuts is found on 
the Pacific coast of Ecuador 
and Colombia, in Panama 
and in Central America. It 
grows from ten to twenty 




> < 



P <: 

p -J1 

< 



74 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

feet in height, and at the base of the leaves bears a cluster of 
nuts resembling cocoanuts. Each nut contains seeds about 
the size of small potatoes, fine-grained and approximating real 
ivory in all characteristics. 

The ease with which this vegetable ivory can be shaped 
by machinery, and its quality of absorbing and retaining dyes 
of any color, make it ideal material for the manufacture of 
buttons. It is also made into umbrella handles, chessmen, and 
poker chips. 

Tagua is shipped to the United States, Germany, France, 
Italy, and England. The taguaros who gather the nuts are, 
as a rule, very poor, and it is necessary for the Guayaquil and 
Esmeraldas merchants to advance supplies and outfits to the 
gatherers to be paid for when the crop comes in. The gather- 
ers work in parties of two, "poling" their canoes up stream for 
several days to the tagua forests on the public lands. Arriv- 
ing as near as possible to the forest, a camp is made on the 
river shore, a rough cabin built and thatched with palm. The 
preparation for work begins with the weaving of baskets, each 
to contain two hundred pounds of nuts. Sometimes mules are 
available, but usually the filled baskets are borne to the rivers 
on the backs of the men. 

For bringing the produce down stream a raft of cork-like 
balsa wood is constructed. Often ten tons of nuts are thus 
brought down to market on a single raft. Sometimes the 
cargo does not pay the expense of gathering, for bad weather 
and poor prices may leave the taguaros still in debt. How- 
ever, in the long run they make a little money. They do not 
expect much. 

Some time ago, when war with Peru seemed imminent, the 
Government of Ecuador doubled the export tax on tagua and 
drafted the taguaros into the army, causing a partial paralysis 
of the industry. The world for a time was short on buttons, 
but luckily mankind had safety pins ! 

The most of the so-called "Panama hats" of commerce are 
woven in southern Ecuador. Guayaquil is the great empo- 
rium and distributing center of the Panama hat industry of the 
world. This is the sole manufactured product exported from 
the republic. Think of that ! 



76 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

In Latin America, these hats are not known as "Panamas," 
but as "Jipijapas," in honor of the Ecuadorian village of Jipi- 
japa, where the first of the hats are said to have been woven. 

The high price of the ''Panama" in foreign countries is 
due to import duties. On his native heath the peasant wears 
a hat which any American millionaire might envy. 

The material used is not a grass or reed, as is sometimes 
stated, but toquilla straw, the fiber of a palm (carludovica pal- 
mata) native of Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. The shrub is 
fan-shaped and attains a height of some five feet. It is cut 
just before it ripens, immersed in boiling water and sun-dried. 
The leaf is then split in shreds for weaving, and must be kept 
damp during the process. "All Panama hats are woven under 
water and by moonlight," a Chicago woman once announced 
to me, and she believed it. True, the straw must be kept damp, 
and weavers often work in the early morning and the cool of 
the evening, but the submerged moonlight story is more pic- 
turesque than authentic. 

Greater whiteness of straw may be obtained by boiling the 
palm in water containing lemon juice. In the finer grades a 
fiber as delicate as linen thread is used, and the weavers are 
quite as skilful as the world's rarest lace-makers. Children, 
both boys and girls, learn the art from their parents, and skill 
evolves with each generation. The finest Panama hat ever 
made was sent to the late King of England. It was so exqui- 
sitely woven that it could be folded into a package little larger 
than a watch. In Ecuador, cavalleros carry folded hats in 
their pockets without the slightest injury, so soft and silky, 
yet durable, is the straw. 

The province of Manabi, bordering the Atlantic, is the 
greatest producer of toquilla straw, and here are the towns of 
Montecristi, Santa Ana and Jipijapa, the heart of the Panama 
industry. One and a quarter million dollars' worth of hats 
were sent out of Ecuador in 191 1, and fifty thousand dollars' 
worth of straw was exported to neighboring countries. Much 
of this went to Peru. 

In Peru the toquilla grows on the eastern slope of the 
Andes and the weavers live on the desert coast. They import 
the straw from Ecuador, rather than bring it from far over the 



ECUADOR 



77 



mountains. Catacaos, in northern Peru, is the best known 
Peruvian hat town, and its narrow old streets are often 
thronged with peasants and buyers, when the middlemen come 
to barter with the natives. 

The Republic of Panama, taking advantage of the name 
given to the hats when they, long ago, passed through the 
Isthmian port, now buys straw from Ecuador and brings 
teachers with it to instruct the Panamanians in the art of weav- 
ing. A few of the Panama hats of commerce do come out of 
Panama, but Ecuador is the great producing center for this 
sort of headgear. 

I have before me, as I write, the shrunken head of an Ecua- 
dorian savage, one of those uncanny, mummified relics from 
far beyond the Andes — the 
wild forest land of the 
Upper Amazon. 

The Jivaros, a brave, 
freedom-loving tribe of the 
eastern tropic wilds of 
Ecuador, who have never 
been really conquered, thus 
preserve the scalp of the 
enemy, removing it in one 
piece from the neck upward 
and drying it with hot 
stones in such a manner 
that the skin retains the 
features of the victim, al- 
though it shrinks to about 
one-fourth the original size. 
The hair and eyelashes re- 
main as in life. These In- 
dians are enormously proud 
of their ghastly trophies, 
but until recent years 
they represented only the 
prowess of war. Un- 
fortunately a few of the 
heads found their way out 

STATUE OF GENERAL BOLIVAR. 
GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR. 




78 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



to civilization 
high price 
o r s for 
When I was 
an En gl i s h 
paid one 
lars each for 
which had 
to the port by 
planter. The 
had bought 
semi-civilized 
Indian had 
them with a 
you see, in 
varos have 
that enemies 
uable than 
now against 
Ecuador t o 
heads, but 
reptitio u s 1 y 
every traveler, 
dustry which 




A SHRUNKEN HEAD, TROPHY OF 
THE HEAD HUNTERS, BROUGHT 
FROM INTERIOR ECUADOR. 



and brought a 
from collect- 
m u s e u m s. 
in Guayaquil 
gen tleman 
hundred dol- 
two heads, 
been shipped 
a rubber 
rubber planter 
them from a 
Indian ; the 
bartered for 
savage. Thus, 
time the Ji- 
come to know 
are more val- 
f riends. It is 
the law of 
sell these 
they are sur- 
o ff e r e d to 
It is an in- 
should be 



suppressed. A savage is only a savage, but the Jivaro would 
better learn to plant rubber and weave hats. Here is a great 
field for some practical missionary! Who will take the job? 
Though political cabals and internal strife have been the 
curse of Ecuador, in time the country will, no doubt, reach 
a firm and stable condition of society and government. The 
natural resources of the country are very great. In rubber, 
sugar-cane, beautiful and precious woods of every sort, tropi- 
cal fruits of every variety, and in many other resources, this 
equatorial land is rich. American enterprise is now entering 
Ecuador, and the future promises better things for this 
country. 



PERU 

Area, 696,000 square miles, or about three and one-half times 
that of France, or twenty-one times as large as the State of 
Maine — Population, approximately 4,000,000, a little more 
than half Indian, estimated — Vast deposits of silver and 
copper, also some gold, coal and petroleum — Sugar and 
rubber important products — Exports from Peru into 
United States in 1911, $5, 597, 123, imports into Peru from 
United States in 1911, $9,314,030 — Army, peace footing, 
4,000 — Capital, Lima, population, 140,000. 

CHAPTER V. 
PRESENT AND ANCIENT PERU. 

LEAVING moisture-soaked Guayaquil behind us we again 
sailed southward. The transition from humidity to 
aridity is swift and surprising. One leaves Guayaquil, perhaps, 
in a torrential downpour of rain at midday, and by midnight is 
sailing across a point opposite the divisional line between 
Ecuador and Peru, where actual rain has probably never been 
seen to fall, and where no tillage of the earth is possible save by 
the aid of irrigation. Tilling the soil in the damp region back 
of Guayaquil is literally, though honorably, a business of 
"muck-raking," while along the coast of Peru husbandry is a 
matter of constantly "laying the dust." 

One explanation of this marked dissimilarity of climatic 
conditions is that the cold ocean current from the Antarctic 
region, which bathes the whole South American western coast, at 
this point, and for more than four thousand miles southward, 
presses in closer to the shore and chills the upper atmosphere to 
such a degree as to prohibit the formation of moisture. How- 
ever, my own conclusions are that the phenomenon can be attri- 
buted to a seemingly more obvious cause. I observed that the 
winds blow almost constantly from the east. It is probable then 
that the atmosphere along the Atlantic coast, becoming filled 
with moisture and moving westward across the vast warm slope 

79 



8o 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 





ON THE COAST WHERE THE SAND DRIFTS. 



of eastern South America, precipitates its burden of rain as it 
proceeds. As the air currents draw westward over the mighty- 
barrier of the Andes Mountains the last of the moisture is 
drawn from the atmosphere in the form of snow, and the 
winds come down across the shores of the Pacific literally 
"sucked dry." This seems to me, at least, the most probable 
reason. 

Whatever the true explanation, the fact remains that the 
whole coast of Peru is pitiably devoid of moisture. It would be 
an actual desert except for the snow-water streams that flow 
down from the Andes Mountains, which are twenty to two hun- 
dred miles distant from the shore. The houses of the 
people in the little towns along this endless, wavering ribbon of 
desert are for the most part constructed of bamboo lath and 
plastered with mud. Should the mud drop off it matters little, 
but for the fact that this permits more sand to blow in. Sand 
is the nightmare of the lives of these people, for it is every- 
where, shifting and drifting in every breeze like fine snow, 





A HIGH PLATEAU VILLAGE, WHERE STREAMS START. 



PERU 



81 



piling up in one spot today and shifting to another spot tomor- 
row, upon the wings of another breeze. 

Payta, Peru, five hundred miles south of Guayaquil, was 
my next stop. As we approached the port, the first object to 
greet the gaze was a large cross, erected on a bluff that extends 
out into the ocean south of the city. We were told that it was 
placed there by the Church to drive away evil spirits, but it is 
more probable that it was erected as a beacon for the guidance 
of ships at sea. 




A GROUP OF PANAMA HAT WEAVERS. 



Payta is the first port of Peru as one approaches from the 
north. It is also the greatest Panama hat market in Peru, and 
during our stay in this port possibly fifty peddlers came aboard 
the ship with sacks of hats. The first price asked was about 
equal to the retail price charged for a hat of the same grade 
in the United States. But it is doubtful if they made any sales 
at those figures, for people who travel much learn the value of 
"dickering" with merchants of this class and seem to take de- 
light in the operation. If the prospective customer is keen 
enough in driving a bargain he can usually get a hat for about 
6 



82 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




one-third the original price asked. 
I saw some good hats sell as low as 
$2.50 each. 

We remained in Payta about six 
hours, taking aboard and discharg- 
ing much cargo, during which time 
officialdom was very much in evi- 
dence. The port officers and quar- 
antine inspectors, clad in gorgeous 
uniforms, went about their duties 
with impressive ceremonies, which 
were at last brought to an end, and 
the steamer weighed anchor and 
sailed away toward the south. 

Between Payta and Callao there 
are three ports at which we called — 
Eten, Pacasmayo and Salaverry. 
At each one a long iron pier reaches 
out into the ocean, one of them 
being 2,700 feet long, but as the 
water is shallow our steamer an- 
chored out half a mile from the end 
of the pier. As the surf rolled the 
boats so that it was dangerous for 
passengers to leave the steamer by 
the ladder, they were taken off in 
iron cages, which were swung out 
over the waiting boat by a crane. 

These towns all looked alike, 
nothing but low iron-roofed build- 
ings, set in a waste of sand. But 
at each town a railroad starts and 
runs back into the desert to good 
towns on the streams that head up 
in the mountains, which disappear 
in their course, all of the water 
being used for irrigation purposes 
before it reaches the sea. Thus 
the size of the rivers is reversed, 



PERU 



83 



the big end being at the 
source. 

From Salaverry to Callao 
we sailed along a rugged, dry- 
coast upon which one would 
die of hunger and thirst if 
shipwrecked. At Callao we 
parted company with many 
interesting persons met dur- 
ing the voyage, most of them 
being American mining men 
and mining engineers on their 
way to work on enterprises 
financed by American capital- 
ists'. Four young men were 
going from the United States 
to Chile to work at a copper 
smelter. One of them wanted 
to know if Chile was a mon- 
archy! From such illustra- 
tions of ignorance it is evi- 
dent that more books should 
be written on South America. 

One of the first interesting 
facts that presented itself 
after our arrival at Callao 
was that this region is in the 
earthquake belt. Callao it- 
self, which is situated seven 
miles from Lima, has been re- 
built several miles away from 
its original site. The entire 
town disappeared during an 
earthquake some years ago, 
trie ocean sweeping in over 
where it had stood. The har- 
bor, one of the best on the 
Pacific coast, is over the site 
of the old city of Callao. 




8 4 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




VIEW IN THE HARBOR OF CALLAO, PERU. 



The new buildings of Lima are now being constructed of 
steel and concrete, the same as in San Francisco, Cal., and are 
in marked contrast to the other buildings, which are low and 
fragile. Slight shocks of earthquakes are common, and upon a 
morning directly after my arrival the toilet articles on my 
dresser danced a merry jig from a "quake." 

Lima, to a North American, is especially interesting, as it 
was the real seat of Spanish Government on the American con- 
tinent, North and South, for nearly three hundred years. 
Pizarro, after overpowering and robbing the Incas, built Lima 
in 1535, and it remained the Spanish capital of South America 
until 1825. Peru was -the last country in South America to 
become a republic. It has the oldest university in the Western 
Hemisphere, I believe, and the oldest and most celebrated 
monasteries. The inquisition tortures were practiced here, on 
religious and political prisoners, for a century after public 
sentiment forced Spain and our New England colonies to 
methods of greater tolerance. 



PERU 



§5 



The Peruvians are a very brave and proud people, and in 
Lima are to be found descendants of much of the best blood of 
Spain. The Peruvians have been overcome in wars, but never 
conquered. Obviously there must be immense wealth back of 
the people of Lima to enable them to recover so quickly after 
the injuries sustained in their disastrous war with Chile, when 
nearly every home was left a ruin, and parks and public build- 
ings were destroyed. Today there is no evidence of this terri- 
ble conflict ; in fact, Lima is quite a new, up-to-date city. The 
wars have done for it what the great Chicago fire did for 
that city — made possible the replacing of old buildings with new 
and modern structures, and gave the city enterprise and brought 
it capital. The population of Lima is 140,000. It lies seven 
miles from the Pacific Ocean and is five hundred feet above 
sea level. 

While I was in Lima the season was that which citizens 
of the United States would designate as ''dog days," the hottest 
period of summer. Still, though Lima is but eight hundred 
miles south of the equator, it was cool enough at night to sleep 
under sheet and blanket. There the thermometer never goes 
above 90 degrees in the daytime, and sunstrokes are unknown. 
The streets are well paved, and being narrow, create a natural 




THE CITY HALL, LIMA, PERU. 



PERU 



87 



draft like a tunnel, and as the buildings are set close together, 
making a welcome shade, the pedestrian is never overheated as 
in some of our large cities. In the center of each house there 
is a large court or patio, filled with flowers, plants, ferns and 
palms so common to all Spanish and tropical countries. Here 
the family lives as privately as if it were not in the heart of the 
city. This is a common style of architecture, and the houses 
of the better class in the country are constructed in the same 
way. 

The Rimac River irrigates a great valley, and on this, the 
greatest river of the dry coast of the South Pacific Ocean, 
the city of Lima is located. The high falls of the Rimac furnish 
abundant power for electric railroads and manufacturing plants, 
and the streets of the city are well lighted at night by electricity, 
while all the houses are wired and are illuminated in the same 
manner, as the current is furnished very cheap. There are 
many little parks and public squares, adorned with statuary, in 
addition to the larger parks, in which the people take great 
pride, gathering there in the evenings and holidays for recrea- 
tion. 




TOMB OF FRANCISCO PIZARRO, IN THE CHAPEL OF THE VIRGIN 
IN THE CATHEDRAL, LIMA, PERU. 



88 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

It was in one of these parks, a few years ago, that a mob — 
dignified in South American countries by the name of revolu- 
tionary party — took President Leguia, an honest and brave ex- 
ecutive, after murdering his guard, and, placing him with his 
back to the statue of Bolivar, the Liberator, ordered him to sign 
a paper turning over the army and navy of Peru to the mob. 

They re-enforced their arguments with revolvers pressed 
against the President's body, and declared they would kill him 
if he declined to sign the paper. He replied that he could die 



■i 




INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL, LIMA, PERU. 



but once, but Peru must live, and his death would be avenged. 
Fortunately, just then a squad of soldiers came along, and the 
commander, imagining the trouble was some sort of a street 
brawl, ordered the crowd to disperse ; as the mob showed no 
signs of obeying he fired into it, little dreaming that the Presi- 
dent of the nation was being exposed to danger of death at the 
hands of his friends. In the scramble of the mob to escape 
being shot, the President fell under a man who was shot dead, 



PERU 



89 



and this, no doubt, saved his life. The young commander is now 
a hero and has been promoted. President Leguia refused to ex- 
ecute any of the men engaged in this "revolution," though 
many of them were sent to prison. I fancy that we of the 
United States would not have dealt so humanely with such a 
"political party." Just the same, no matter how much Peru- 
vians may differ on home 
matters of govern m e n t, 
they are a unit the moment 
their country is assailed by 
a foreign foe. Their loyalty 
to their country is above 
any other consideration, 
and one is compelled to ad- 
mire them for it. 

There are many evi- 
dences throughout Peru of 
a prehistoric race that pos- 
sessed a high degree of 
civilization. Ruins of tem- 
ples, houses and entire 
cities, have been unearthed, 
and the discoveries made 
are mute witnesses to the 
intelligence and thrift of 
this remote people. In 
their burial mounds have 
been found pottery, gold 
and silver vessels, and orna- 
ments of rare carving and 
workmanship. These show 
that culture and enlight- 
enment must have widely 
obtained among the now 
obliterated race, while the 
cotton twine, woven cloth 
and cobs of maize un- 
earthed, denote their skill 
in manufacture and practi- 
cal husbandry. _ «„.„,„ T.. 

J WOODEN STATUE OF DEATH IN 

CHURCH OF SAN AUGUSTIN, 
LIMA, PERU. 




90 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Some students of ancient Peru believe that there was em- 
igration from China to this country thousands of years ago, the 
unearthed ruins bearing resemblance to the early Buddhist tem- 
ples in Mongolia, while even today, some of the coast natives 
look like the Chinese and are able to understand the Chinese 
tongue. 

However, other antiquarians have advanced the theory that 
the very earliest occupants of Peru were a blonde people, the 
settlement having been a colony from Plato's mythical con- 
tinent, Atlantis, which sank into the sea before man had a writ- 
ten history. However that may be, the mighty nation of the 
Incas, now the degenerated Indians of Peru, is supposed to 
have come originally from the regions about the Amazon River. 
It is a curious fact that the map of the bottom of the Atlantic 
Ocean, made through deep sea soundings by the American 
and British Governments, shows a vast submerged plateau 
toward the eastern side of the Atlantic, and that there are two 
submerged ridges connecting this plateau with Europe, and an- 
other ridge connecting the plateau with South America, just 
below the mouth of the Amazon River. 

This seems to agree with Plato's description of the sup- 
posedly fabled continent of Atlantis, which sank into the sea in 
a convulsion of nature, the submergence of which gave rise to 
the fabulous story of the destruction of the prehistoric world 
by a deluge. The theory, then, that the prehistoric peoples of 
South America had their origin through emigration from 
Atlantis, by way of a ridge of land that joined Atlantis to South 
America near the mouth of the Amazon, seems not altogether 
impossible, though the truth, of course, can never be fully 
known. 

The history of Peru is so dramatic and extraordinary that I 
fancy the reader would be entertained by a few words relative 
to its principal events. 

About the year iooo there were several tribes of Indians 
inhabiting the high plateau about Cuzco, the old Inca capital, 
and from one of those tribes a great leader arose, named Manco 
Capac, who claimed descent from the Sun God. The word 
Inca means "lord," and Manco Capac was the first Inca chief, 



PERU 



9i 



his direct descendants ruling the vast Inca domains until the 
Spanish conquest. 

Today Peru is profiting from the great things the Incas did 
with the crudest sort of tools. They drilled with drills made 
of pure copper, having a method of tempering the metal until 
it was as hard as steel, a method that is unknown today, being 
numbered with the lost arts. They built miles of military 
roads, reservoirs, canals, and irrigating ditches. Whole moun- 
tainsides were terraced up and land made over these terraces, 
which apparently must have consumed years of labor. There 
was no leisure class in those days, every one being obliged to 
work, and the products were divided between the Government, 
the priests and the people. If there was a scarcity in one sec- 




IN THE GARDEN OF THE MONASTERY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 
LIMA, PERU. 



PERU 93 

tion of the country it was made up by drawing on Government 
storehouses in a richer section. 

The wealth of the Incas was enormous, and they had 
numerous rich gold, silver and copper mines, which they worked 
in the crudest manner. Among these mines was the famous 
Cerro de Pasco, which lies in the heart of the Andes Moun- 
tains, 14,000 feet above sea level. The Incas were splendid 
fighters, and they conquered the Indian tribes of what are now 
Peru, northern Chile, northwestern Argentina, Bolivia and 
Ecuador. Thus in time the Inca Emperor controlled a vast 
area and was monarch of over 2,000,000 hard-working people. 

Their temples to the Sun God, and the palaces of the Inca 
Emperor, were built of great stones, so cut as to fit evenly one 
upon the other, and the inside walls were treasure houses of 
gold and silver ornaments and decorations of precious stones, 
and, it is said, they ate from gold plates. 

Atahualpa was the last Emperor of the Incas. During the 
early part of his reign he was constantly at war with his broth- 
er, Huascar, who tried to usurp the throne. But Atahualpa, 
with his enormous resources and an army of 70,000 men, 
proved too much for the traitorous brother, and after several 
battles succeeded in completely wiping out of existence the 
rebel and his band of followers. At this time the Inca empire 
was at the acme of its glory, and it included all of the habitable 
parts of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, three-fourths of Chile, and 
a large part of Argentina, stretching 2,200 miles north and 
south, and from the Pacific to the eastern foot of the Andes 
Mountains. Having conquered the entire country about them, 
and feeling secure in their empire, like many another nation in 
the history of the world, they relaxed in precaution and gave 
themselves up to the enjoyment of life. 

In 1532 word was brought to Atahualpa that a company of 
two hundred strangers, having white faces on which hair grew, 
and riding on strange animals, had landed on the coast at 
Tumbez, on the Gulf of Guayaquil. This was the beginning of 
the Spanish invasion under the famous adventurer, Pizarro, 
who had crossed the Isthmus of Panama with Balboa some 
years before and had heard stories of the great treasures in the 
land to the south. He reached what is now Peru, saw for 



94 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




STATUE OF GENERAL BOLIVAR, LIMA, PERU. 



himself the wealth of the country, and decided to go to Spain 
and interest the Government in fitting out an expedition to con- 
quer and loot the kingdom of the Incas. He had an audience 
with the King of Spain, who authorized him to conquer and 
settle Peru for Spain and gave him money to fit out an expedi- 
tion. Pizarro, on his part, was to remit to the royal treasury 
one-fifth of the gold he would get in Peru. 

It was Pizarro, with his two hundred fighting adventurers 
and horses, of whom the Inca Emperor had heard, and he sent 
a friendly message to Pizarro, asking the privilege of visiting 
the Spaniard's camp outside of Cajamarca. Pizarro willingly 
granted the request, for he had formed a daring plan to capture 
and make a prisoner of the Inca Emperor in his own camp. 
Atahualpa, not suspecting treachery, left his camp and was 
borne on a litter into the town of Cajamarca, surrounded by 
only a few of his soldiers. Through an interpreter Pizarro 
demanded that the Inca Emperor should become a subject of 
the King of Spain and join the Catholic Church. This the 
Emperor haughtily refused to do, whereupon a priest who 



PERU 



95 



accompanied Pizarro called out, "Fall on, Christians ! I ab- 
solve you !" 

Then followed one of the world's greatest tragedies. The 
Spaniards slaughtered the Inca's bodyguard, for the latter could 
do nothing against the coats of mail worn by the Spaniards.. The 
Emperor was dragged from his litter and made a prisoner, 
being held as a hostage in a large room, which was closely 
guarded. One day he sent for Pizarro and said : "I will fill this 
room in which I am held a prisoner with gold as high as I can 
reach, if you will let me go free." 

Pizarro agreed, and gold was brought in by the faithful sub- 
jects of Atahualpa until the necessary ransom was complete, in 
all amounting, it is said, to about $23,000,000 of modern money. 
One-fifth of this huge sum was sent to Spain and the rest 

divided among Pizarro 
and his men, and even 
those who got the 
smallest part were 
made rich for life. 

Pizarro, as might 
have been expected — 
for he was one of the 
greatest thieves of all 
history — did not keep 
his word with the Inca 
Emperor, and instead 
of freeing him, charged 
him with the murder 
of his brother and had 
him executed on the 
public square of Caja- 
marca. During the 
confusion that resulted 
from this deed, Pizarro 
marched to Cuzco, cap- 
tured it, and having 
received additional 
soldiers in the mean- 
time, established a capi- 




ENTRANCE TO THE SENATE BUILDING, 
LIMA, PERU. 




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PERU 97 

tal in the Rimac Valley at Lima. The Spaniards quickly con- 
quered the various Indian tribes throughout the Inca empire, 
and taking possession of the land, divided it up into large 
estates, compelling the Indians to pay tribute to them. 

Thus the great Inca empire fell, and the Spanish conquerors 
were left to fight among themselves for the rich country and 
spoils they had gained, and fight they did, each captain claiming 
more territory and riches than the concession from the crown 
allowed him. As a result there was almost constant warfare in 
the country. Pizarro had established himself in Lima, where 
he lived in great luxury, and having been made Governor, he 
spent a considerable sum in beautifying the city and enlarg- 
ing it. 

While Pizarro's soldiers were jealous of one another's 
possessions, and his captains fought among themselves over the 
division of the spoils, some of his generals were jealous of their 
leader's power and wealth, claiming that he had taken more 
than his share. Therefore, one night when Pizarro was eating 
his dinner in his palace, surrounded by all the luxury gold could 
buy, twenty of his enemies rushed into the room and killed him, 
though he fought to the last with great courage. 

A royal commissioner, Vaca de Castro, sent to Peru by the 
King of Spain, arrived in the midst of the confusion precipi- 
tated in Lima by the murder of Pizarro, and it was fortunate 
that he came so opportunely, for, having a commission from the 
King, he became the legal ruler, thus terminating the inevitable 
fight for Pizarro's mantle among those who had murdered him. 
The guilty ones were executed in the public square in Lima. 

First one, then another of the old bloodthirsty adventurers 
who had been with Pizarro, and who had remained loyal to him, 
were appointed Governor by the King of Spain. But they did 
not send home as much gold as King Charles desired, and 
finally he sent to Peru the Marquis of Canete to govern, with 
the title of Viceroy. 

The Spaniards had conquered but not colonized the country, 
so the new Viceroy brought with him a large household and 
staff. Under his rule churches, convents, and monasteries were 
built, and today they are most interesting and beautiful build- 
ings. Among the Viceroy's entourage were a large number of 
7 



98 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

beautiful Spanish nuns, one of whom was a young girl of nine- 
teen, said to be the most beautiful of all. Her life story is 
very sad., 

At the age of seventeen, so the chronicle runs, she had a 
lover who was a poor young man. As neither of them had 
any money, the young man decided to go to Peru to gain a for- 
tune in the new country. Nearly two years passed without 
tidings of him, and then, growing impatient, she decided to go 
to Peru herself and learn the reason for his silence. As she 
had no money, and there was no other way for her to get to 
Peru, she became a nun and joined those who were going with 
the Viceroy. When she arrived in Lima she found her lover 
seriously wounded and was just in time to have him die in her 
arms. It is said that she devoted her life to nursing the sick, 
in which work she was so happy and contented that the expres- 
sion of her face became as beautiful as the Madonna's. 

A succession of governors and captain-generals was sent 
out from Spain in the years that followed, and vice-captain- 
generals ruled in Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and 
Bolivia, whose principal duty was to wring money from the 
inhabitants to swell the treasury of Spain. Such a system of 
extreme tyranny and spoliation as was this old Spanish con- 
quest finds hardly a parallel in human history. Finally the in- 
evitable storm of revolution broke out all over South America. 
This was in 1806, and in rapid succession the Spanish officials 
were overthrown in Argentina, New Granada, Chile and Vene- 
zuela, only Peru remaining loyal to the crown. There was 
constant fighting each year, General Simon Bolivar being the 
brilliant leader who organized the campaigns in the war against 
Spanish domination. 

In 1820 Bolivar sent one of his lieutenants, General San 
Martin, with about five thousand Argentinians and Chileans to 
Peru, to wrest the country from the Spaniards. For two years 
there was constant fighting, and in 1822 San Martin was joined 
by Bolivar, with his numerous well-trained soldiers, and in 1825, 
after many great battles, Peru was wrested from the Spanish 
crown and the war for independence was over. Only Callao 
castle at Callao held out, but after thirteen months it, too, gave 



ioo ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

up, and with its surrender was hauled down the last Spanish 
flag on the South American mainland. 

The Peruvians made Bolivar President, but he left the 
country to go to the United States of Colombia, of which he 
was also President. Peru's independence began without any 
basis for a strong, stable government. The interior, inhabited 
by Indians, who always got the worst of it no matter who gov- 
erned them, and the long strip of coast divided by local jeal- 
ousies, created a condition of antagonisms that defeated all 
efforts to form a compact nation. 

The only thing that could unite the Peruvians was war with 
a common foe, and a pretext for that war was soon found. 
Bolivar's government was in power from the Caribbean Sea to 
Argentina, and he expected to become Emperor of all South 
America. But the Peruvians had grown tired of being gov- 
erned by a nonresident President, and they desired very much 
to be rid of Bolivar's rule and of the soldiers he had left to 
keep Peru for him. 

The inhabitants at length arose in revolt and for several 
years a fierce conflict was waged, which finally ended in the 
defeat of Bolivar. Thus, being rid of the common foe, the in- 
ternal strife of Peru began again, and the country was in a con- 
stant state of revolution. A President would be elevated to 
power, and in a few weeks he would be deposed and another 
put in his place. Sometimes the change in Presidents would 
occur peacefully, but more often with much bloodshed and dis- 
aster to the country. Twenty years of independence brought 
Peru no nearer to a stable government, and the situation 
seemed to grow worse year after year. 

There arose in this emergency a quiet little soldier, Ramon 
Castilla, who had fought in the war of independence and the 
civil wars, but always on the side most partial to good govern- 
ment. He became President in 1845, an d from that date the 
Republic of Peru began to thrive. He paid his soldiers regu- 
larly, rewarded his friends, relieved agriculture of taxation, 
paid interest on the foreign debt Peru had made during the war 
of independence, and refunded it with the accrued interest that 
had already amounted to more than the principal. 

Telegraphs and railways were constructed, and no money 



PERU 



101 



was wasted on a useless army of officeholders. Castilla utilized 
the millions of dollars coming into the treasury of the country 
from the big guano and nitrate deposits in useful improve- 
ments, and inexorably insisted that every cent should be made 
to count for the good of his country. He encouraged foreign 
immigration, and Chinese coolies came in large numbers, also 
many Europeans, among whom were seventy Basque peasants 
from Spain, some of whom were killed in a row on a plantation 
on which they were working. Spain demanded an apology from 
Peru and $3,000,000 indemnity. Peru refused both, broke off 
diplomatic relations, and Spain sent a big fleet which seized 
the' valuable Chincha guano islands. A treaty of alliance was 
made with Chile, war was declared on Spain, and the batteries 
at Callao, the seaport of Lima, were re-enforced and a big force 
of volunteers manned the guns. When the Spanish fleet ar- 
rived in 1866 they were unable to make a landing, and their 

ships were so badly damaged 
that they gave up further hos- 
tilities. 

Nitrate, as the reader doubt- 
less knows, is the most valuable 
of all fertilizers of the soil. 
The discovery of great fields 
bearing this commodity along 
the seacoast of South America 
has been the basis of much 
strife as well as of great 
wealth. The nitrate-bearing 
strip along the coast is some 
three hundred and fifty miles 
in length. Peru owned the 
northern one hundred and fifty 
miles, and prior to i860, Bolivia 
claimed the remaindc . After 
the discovery of the nitrate 
fields the Republic of Chile 
crowded upward along the 
coast and began to mine for 
the valuable stuff. Peru made 

A DESCENDANT OF THE INCAS AND 
HIS MOTHER. 




102 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

a secret treaty of alliance with Bolivia in 1872, which later 
became public, and which Chile believed was aimed at her 
miners working in Bolivian territory. She began buying war- 
ships, and to protect her interests seized the Bolivian ports, 
after which action Bolivia declared war. Peru could not, 
under the circumstances, ignore her treaty with Bolivia, espe- 
cially as she did not want the disputed territory to fall into the 
hands of Chile. Her offers of arbitration were refused, Chile 
declaring war in April, 1879, and opening hostilities by block- 
ading the Peruvian ports in the extreme south. 

The Chilean navy was far superior to that of Peru, and the 
latter was soon destroyed, though it fought to the bitter end. 
Being in command of the sea, Chile could land an army wher- 
ever she pleased, and Antofagasta was chosen as the most 
vulnerable point. Ten thousand men were landed there, and 
though every foot of the way was hotly contested by the brave 
Peruvians, the Chilean army finally arrived in the great nitrate 
province of Tacna, the treasury of Peru. Not only was this 
lost, but Lima, the capital, and all points on the coast were 
open to attack. 

Just at this critical moment a revolution broke out in Lima, 
the President having sailed for Europe. The Chilean army, 
heavily re-enforced and equipped with modern guns, advanced 
from Tacna, and although the Peruvians fought with great 
courage, their country lay at the mercy of Chile. It was at this 
point in the hostilities that the United States of North America 
offered to act as mediator. Chile demanded an indemnity and 
a formal cession of the nitrate regions. Peru refused this, 
whereupon Chile, with a splendid army of 24,000 men, ad- 
vanced on Lima. The Peruvians were driven back, seemingly 
by inches, so hotly was the advance contested, and the slaugh- 
ter was heart-breaking. Over 5,000 Peruvians were killed just 
outside the city, and 4,000 were taken prisoners. The Chilean 
losses at the same time were 5,000. On January 17, 1881, the 
Chilean army took possession of Lima, and it was not until 
five years afterward that the Peruvian flag again waved over 
the capital. 

The Chilean army withdrew in 1886, leaving 4,000 men to 
see that the treaty of peace, made October 20, 1883, was rati- 



PERU 



103 



fied. The provisions of this treaty differed but little from what 
Chile had demanded before. The money indemnity was waived 
and half the guano receipts, revenues received from the soil 
fertilizer gathered on the Guano Islands, were left to Peru. 
The provinces of Tacna and Arica were to be held by Chile for 




A SHRINE IN A CHURCH AT COPALMA, PERU. 



ten years, at the end of which time a popular vote was to 
decide which should hold them, the losing country to receive 
$10,000,000 from the other. 

It would have been better for the interests of permanent 
peace had the fate of the provinces been definitely fixed, as 



104 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Chile and Peru have never been able to agree upon the terms 
under which the vote of the people should be conducted. Chile 
still has the provinces, and Peru is still trying to recover them. 
I have recounted these historic events in as few words as seemed 
possible. In truth, the full history of the Incas and the opera- 
tions of Spain in Peru, together with the later history of the 
Peruvian people, would make several interesting volumes. 

Peru of today is in much the same political position as that 
occupied by the United States twenty years ago. The old- 
timers, those who were saddened by the results of the great war 
with Chile, are fast disappearing, and a new element, one of 
progression, one desiring peace and commercial stability, has 
taken the place of the old elements. The Peruvian aristocracy 
has learned its lesson in the hard school of adversity, and now 
competes with the commercial classes in sober, serious attention 
to industrial and governmental matters. Every division of the 
people desires to contribute to the regeneration, financial, polit- 
ical and moral, of their country. 




RURAL HOUSE IN SECTION OF PERU WHERE IT NEVER RAINS. 



PERU 



105 



I had the honor of being received by President Leguia, who 
is a very able, energetic man. He was very much interested in 
the United States, his son, when I was in Peru, being at college 
in the University of Wisconsin. 




THE STEEL DOCK AT PACASMAYO, PERU, 2,400 FEET LONG. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD. 

4 ( T) EYOND the Alps lies Italy," is a phrase that is familiar 

JL) to every schoolboy. Beyond the Andes lies a country 
that is old in history, yet little known. It is just as probable 
that the Garden of Eden was located there as in any other of a 
dozen places claimed for Mother Eve's fabled apple orchard. 

The world advances only with transportation. This is a 
fact that government and economists now generally recognize. 
To water must be given the first place in both tonnage and 
cheapness, but railroads must be depended upon for reaching 
the more inaccessible and isolated portions of any country. The 
commercial growth of South America has been slow, because 
adequate transportation to the interior was not recognized and 
established in an earlier day. The unstable Governments of 
the past prevented capital from building railroads, ruined 
credits, and prevented prosperity. It is quite different now. 

The Panama Canal will benefit Peru very greatly, as it will 
bring her products nearer to the markets of the world than 
those of any other country in South America. The canal will 
also open up Peru more fully as a market for the products of 
the United States, as it will be easier and cheaper to reach her 
ports, by rail and water, from east of the Rocky Mountains, 
than California. By looking at a map of North and South 
America you will see that the Panama Canal and Peru are 
almost south of New York, not New Orleans, as most people 
believe. The reader will, therefore, understand why I am 
giving so much space to Peru in this volume. 

In 1883, when the war with Chile was over, Peru had an 
immense foreign debt and no income with which to pay either 
principal or interest. The railroads belonged to the Govern- 
ment and, like many Government-operated properties, were 
practically worthless to the country. However, it formed a 

106 




AMONG THE MOUNTAINS ON THE PERU CENTRAL RAILWAY. 
NOTE THE SWITCHBACKS AND ZIGZAG STYLE OF TRACK. 



io8 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



basis for a settlement of the national debt, owed largely to Eng- 
lish capitalists. 

In 1 89 1, the ''Peruvian Corporation," an English company, 
was formed, and it assumed the $250,000,000 debt of Peru, in 
consideration for which act the Government ceded to the cor- 
poration all the State railroads of the country, some mines and 
lands (all unproductive), and in addition agreed to pay $400,- 
000 cash a year for sixty years and turn over the income from 
one-half of the Guano Islands deposits. The guano deposits 
pay the corporation over $500,000 a year, and altogether the 
net receipts of this $100,000,000 corporation in one year 
amounted to about $2,500,000, or one per cent on the debt from 
which Peru was relieved. Of course no one knows what the 
corporation paid for these bonds and debts, as they were con- 
sidered of little value at the close of the war. 

The year 1910, Mr. W. L. Morkill having taken charge as 
president of the properties, was the best in the history of the 
corporation for net earnings. The railroads are kept up like 
Continental roads, and persistent scientific work has made the 
roadbeds very nearly perfect. The Peru Central, which runs 
from Lima east up over the Andes Mountains, is, to quote what 




TICLIO, ON THE PERU CENTRAL RAILWAY, THE HIGHEST 
TELEGRAPH STATION IN THE WORLD. 




ISK S^ 



! M, *S^ 



ffifc 



^^^~- 










. 



' •-• . 



*'* V 




v 



-v,,-'-- 



THE OROYA MINES ON THE PERU CENTRAL RAILWAY IN THE 
HIGH ANDES, PERU. 



no ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

every writer, engineer and railroad man who has seen the road 
says, "the most wonderful railroad in the world." Its altitude is 
the highest occupied by any railroad, being at one point 17,500 
feet above the level of the sea. You cannot write about South 
America without mentioning the Amazon River, the Incas, the 
prairies of Argentina, and the Ferrocarril Central of Peru, any 
more than you can omit the Niagara Falls, Chicago, New York, 
or the Yellowstone Park, in speaking of the United States of 
North America. 

Thirty years ago I "wrote up" a man for a paper for which I 
was reporting in Fargo, North Dakota. The man had just ar- 
rived in the West from serving a term in the penitentiary in 
Philadelphia, Pa., and his name was Charles T. Yerkes — after- 
ward of world-wide street-railroad fame, having built, during 
his eventful career, the Underground Railway in London, Eng- 
land, and extended the street car lines of the North and West 
divisions of Chicago until they formed a gigantic system. The 
story I wrote for my paper about Mr. Yerkes was, I think, a 
good one, and the proprietor and editor — the same person — sat 
in his big armchair and rocked as he read it. When he finished 
it he quietly said : "Can't use it, my boy." 

"Why, Major?" I asked. 

"Because, my boy, when a man crosses the Red River of the 
North his past is forgotten." I learned afterward that my 
employer also "had done time back East," and that was the 
"reason why." 

The Peru Central (or Oroya) Railroad, the Eighth Wonder 
of the World, was planned, engineered and the most difficult 
portion built by a man who "couldn't go home to the States." 
His name was Henry Meiggs, a soldier of fortune who was 
born in New York State. After making and losing several 
fortunes in the East, he went to California, where he engaged 
in business on an extensive scale and soon got into trouble. He 
left California "while the going was good" in a ship chartered 
for his own use, and landed at Lima. Had he not possessed "a 
record" possibly his name would not have stuck to the great 
railroad, which is a monument to his genius. Fie "made good" 
in Peru, paying back the money he owed when he left San 



ii2 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Francisco, with interest, and opening up a new-old country to 
the world. 

Going up this wonderful railroad from Lima to Galera tun- 
nel, a distance of one hundred miles, it took a 112-ton oil-burn- 
ing locomotive, pulling four cars, nine hours to make the ascent. 

After passing through some sixty tunnels going up and the 
4,000- foot Galera tunnel at the summit (15,665 feet above 
sea level), the. road drops down 2,000 feet every hour for 
two hours, and at a height of about 12,000 feet reaches the 
town of Oroya, which lies between the two ranges of the Andes. 
This "roof of the world" extends from Colombia to Argentina, 
north and south, through Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, for more 
than two thousand miles, or as far as from New York to Den- 
ver. In all directions can be seen villages, cattle, sheep, llamas 
and evidences of mining. Here it is possible to support a great 
population. 

From Lima, the journey up this amazing railroad probably 
cannot be equaled in strangeness and grandeur anywhere else 
on the globe. There really is no language adequate to express 
it. Leaving Lima, the road follows the foaming, roaring Rimac 
River for forty miles through a verdureless desert, save where 
irrigation is employed. In spots where water is drawn off 
from the river there are fields of corn, waving stretches of 
sugar-cane, tall palms and banana trees. In these sheltered, irri- 
gated "pockets" among the foothills of the Andes grow apples, 
peaches, melons, oranges, custard apples, strawberries, delicious 
avocado pears, and a number of varieties of tropical fruits that 
the Northern man is not used to see growing. As the engine 
climbs upward, the Andes tower everywhere, gaunt, treeless, 
mighty, awesome. From the train one looks down into the 
depths that turn the head dizzy and bring the heart up into 
the throat; mountain walls spring upward, seamed, soaring, 
swart ; Alpine flowers cling here and there to the rocks, though 
one seems in a world where the very bones of the earth are 
broken and piled up in indescribable and appalling masses. In 
many places on the way we saw impressive evidences of the old 
Inca prowess and endurance. Here and there the remains of the 
splendid roads they cut in the mountainsides could be seen, and 
terraces on the hillsides, sometimes twenty or thirty of them, 



PERU 



"3 



one above another, were mute but tremendous witnesses of the 
patience of this ancient people. Men are still living upon and 
farming these wonderful terraces, and at times we saw goats 
and sheep far up the steeps and meek-eyed, long-necked llamas 
bearing burdens along the dizzy roads. It was a journey never 
to be forgotten. 

The main line of the Central Railroad ends at Oroya, one 
hundred and thirty-eight miles from the Pacific Ocean, and 
from Oroya a branch runs south eighty miles to Huancayo, 
which lies in a beautiful valley only ten thousand feet above sea 
level. Possibly the greatest Indian market in Peru is found 
there, and but little change has occurred in hundreds of years. 
When the great highway of the Incas, from Cuzco to Quito, 
passed through this valley, the country supported a population 
five times as great as at the present date. 

An effective description of the scenery of this wonderful 
cloud-realm would be possible only to a poet. Even photo- 
graphs give but a faint idea of the grandeur of the mountain 
ranges, in which the glory of the sunset and the miracle of the 
dawn are never ending marvels. Beautiful natural scenery 





LOOKING DOWN UPON THE ROOFS OF CERRO DE PASCO, PERU. 
8 



ii4 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

doubtless has always been a powerful influence in the spiritual- 
izing of man, and looking abroad upon this inspiring kingdom 
of the Incas, one can easily fancy why they built temples and 
worshiped the Sun, the Creator's most sublime manifestation. 

However, we must be practical and note the work of the 
men of the present day, for we live in a commercial era under a 
new order of life. This extraordinary mountain railroad forces 
this fact upon one. From Oroya it turns northward to Cerro 
de Pasco, eighty miles away, this latter portion of the line be- 
longing to the Cerro de Pasco Mining and Smelting Company, 
which constructed the road seven years ago in order to get their 
supplies to the mines and their copper to market. 

We arrived at Cerro de Pasco, where the smelter of the 
copper company is located, at eleven o'clock at night. We were 
14,300 feet above sea level, and all about us were the towering 
snow-capped peaks of the Peruvian Andes, many of them over 
20,000 feet above sea level. The Cerro de Pasco mines and 
smelter are owned by a big American syndicate composed of 
James B. Haggin, the veteran copper man, J. Pierpont Morgan, 
and the Hearst and Vanderbilt estates. Mr. Louis Haggin, a 
son of James B. Haggin, is president of the mining company, 
as well as of the Cerro de Pasco Railway Company. 

The mines are situated near the city of Cerro de Pasco, 
some six miles from the smelter, and we made the trip to 
them on a hand car driven by four Cholo Indians. There are 
about two thousand of these Indians employed as laborers in 
the mines and smelters, in addition to some two hundred sal- 
aried men, who are mostly Americans. The superficial under- 
ground workings of the mines cover an area one mile by one- 
half mile and there are, altogether, about one hundred miles of 
workings. The mines are worked from two hundred to six 
hundred foot levels. From the two hundred to the four hun- 
dred foot levels they were taking ore when I was there, and 
from the four hundred to the six hundred foot levels they were 
prospecting. 

The ordinary monthly output of the mines is 27,000 tons of 
ore. They have three grades of ore, No. 1, 7 per cent and 
above ; No. 2, 3 to 7 per cent ; No. 3, 3 per cent and below. 
The Cerro de Pasco mines were worked by the Spaniards years 




MINES AT CASAPALCA, PERU. 





OLD SILVER MINES, CERRO DE PASCO, PERU. 



n6 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

ago for silver, and many of their levels have been found and 
timbered up to prevent cave-ins. All of the timber used in the 
mines is brought from Oregon. They are fairly dry, particu- 
larly at the two hundred and three hundred foot levels. 

The city of Cerro de Pasco is the highest town in the world, 
and has a population of about 12,000 people, in most part 
Cholo Indians. I rode through the city on a mule in a blind- 
ing snow and hail storm. However, on a later tour I discov- 
ered that the streets were narrow and dirty, the houses mostly 
of wood, covered with tin roofs, many of which were patched 
with portions of tin cans. 

The power for the smelter is supplied by coal taken from a 
mine owned by the company, some twenty miles away. From 
the smelter they ship ninety-eight per cent pure copper, and get 
enough gold and silver from every ton to pay the freight to 
the company's refining plant at Perth Amboy, New Jersey. 

We had heard a good deal about soroche (mountain sick- 
ness) before leaving for the mines, and discovered later that 
it is like an English joke, not to be laughed at. We did not 
believe, when we were in Lima, all that we heard about this 
dreaded sickness, but when we reached Cerro de Pasco, four- 
teen thousand three hundred feet above the sea level, every 
member of the party was attacked, and it is the most awful 
thing of the kind I have ever experienced. Plain, old "sick-at- 
the-stomach" does not begin to describe the awful nausea that 
grips and racks the sufferer, who gasps for breath and feels 
that his heart is about to stop beating, and oh ! such a head- 
ache ! The throbbing, beating pain gives one the impression 
that his head is going to blow to pieces. 

We sent for a physician, a young Dr. McDonald, who had 
been at the mines only two weeks. He took our temperatures, 
felt our pulses and then remarked, "You know, I have been 
here but a short time, and when I came I had the soroche. I 
tried all the medicines I had to make me feel better, but none 
did me any good, so what is the use of me giving you any? It 
is beyond me, this soroche, and before I came into the Andean 
altitudes I had never heard of it. I am sorry I cannot relieve 
you." 

We were left to suffer and groan and wait for the sickness 



PERU 



117 



to wear itself out, and it lasted three days ! One has no appe- 
tite, and when he stands upon his feet or attempts any exer- 
cise his head swims so that the only feasible thing to do is to lie 
down. Then one minute he is afraid he will die, and the next 
he prays that he will. 

Returning to Lima, I accompanied the general manager of 
the Central Railway in his private car from Oroya to Galera 
tunnel, the highest point on the through line, although from 
here they have a branch running up to Morococha, a mining 

camp 17,575 feet 
above sea level. This 
is the highest point 
in the world where 
men work. The 
richest copper ore in 
Peru is mined here, 
and the mine be- 
longs to the Cerro de 
Pasco company. 

At Galera tunnel, 
General Man a g e r 
Feehan, Sehor Pedro 
Larranaga, a direct- 
or of the railway 
company, and my- 
self, left Mr. Fee- 
han's car and took 
a specially con- 
structed hand car 
for the hundred-mile 
trip to Lima, every 
foot of which is 
down grade. There 
were two brakes on the car, one handled by Mr. Feehan, the 
other by Sehor Larranaga, and the carefulness with which 
they watched every foot of the road convinced me of the 
danger of traveling twenty-five miles an hour or more down 
grade on a light car. 

The beauty of the scenery, the ruggedness of the high 




A SUSPENSION BRIDGE, BUILT BY THE 
INDIANS OF PERU. 



n8 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

mountains, the deep ravines, with rivers sometimes 2,000 feet 
below, the sixty tunnels we rushed through, the curves, reverse 
curves, switchbacks, the mining camps, smelters, villages, 
bridges, waterfalls, peons, were like objects in some strange 
journey in a dream. On and on we rushed, only stopping at a 
switchback to turn over our seats and face the other way, and 
the seemingly sheer madness of the experience will survive in 
my memory should I live a thousand years. Here they slow up 
long enough for us to look down through a bridge, where, in a 
river four hundred feet below, lies part of a bridge, an engine 
and fourteen cars that "got away." That is the only explana- 
tion of the accident that cost a number of lives. Again we pass 
a spot where they cut a tunnel for the river and appropriated the 
bed of the stream for the railroad. Again we are running around 
a curve on a big rock sticking out over the river so far that the 
water is directly under us and cannot be seen. There is not 
and never will be another railroad like this. I am proud of my 
American fellow man, exile though he may have been, who 
planned and put it through. I have sailed in the air, been on 
a burning ship at sea, hunted grizzly bears in the Rockies, lions 
and elephants in Africa, and have been on the firing line in 
battle, but I never before experienced all the sensations possible 
to those past perils at one and the same time. 

With the railroads of Peru in the hands of a corporation 
such as now owns them, and which employs talented men to 
care for, protect and extend them, it seems to me that this coun- 
try made a very fine bargain when it got rid of its national debt 
and secured good transportation at the same time. 

Before the war with Chile, as I have mentioned, Peru was 
very rich in both nitrate and guano, both of which are un- 
equaled fertilizers. Chile took the nitrate, which will be worked 
out, some day, but as long as the birds live there will be guano 
on the islands the birds inhabit. Recently the Peruvian Corpo- 
ration, which owns half of the islands, has protected the birds 
in nesting and fledgling time by inaugurating a closed season of 
several months, during which no guano is removed and no per- 
sons are allowed on the islands. 

It was formerly supposed that the seals dropped guano on 
the land, but this has been disproved, and as the seals only eat 



PERU 



119 



the eggs and disturb the young birds, as well as catch the fish 
that the birds live on, the company is now exterminating them. 
These seals are not fur-bearing, but their hides are good for 
leather and some oil is saved from the carcasses. The Govern- 
ment, by pursuing the same wise policy, can greatly increase 
the quality and quantity of the guano deposits, and thus offset 
the loss of its nitrate fields. The net revenue derived from 
guano by the Government and the Peruvian Corporation com- 
bined is about $1,500,000 annually. 

When I first saw the barren desert coast of Peru I was dis- 
appointed, but now that I appreciate how the snows deposited 
on the high mountains are continually melting under the tropi- 
cal sun, forming rivers that reach the ocean underground, I 
am satisfied that sufficient water to supply artesian wells, with 
which much of the desert land can be irrigated, will be found 




LLAMAS AT MOROCOCIIA COPPER MINES, PERU. AS PACK 
ANIMALS THEY CARRY JUST IOO POUNDS EACH. 



120 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

when the wells are drilled. Confirmation of this theory is 
found in the many strong wells that have been developed within 
the last few years, and everything grows here abundantly where 
there is sufficient water. 

Few people, perhaps, are aware of the fact that our own 
great chain of lakes — Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and 
Ontario — receive thirteen-sixteenths of their water from under- 
ground rivers, many of which rise in the Rocky Mountains. 
Only a few of these subterranean streams are from the Cana- 
dian side, and that is why the United States is really entitled to 
more than one-half of the water in the Great Lakes, and why the 
city of Chicago is entitled to draw water from Lake Michigan 
and send it down to the Gulf of Mexico, instead of all the water 
following the course of ages over the Niagara Falls. 

Depending on irrigation, sugar and cotton are limited in 
area in Peru, but are very profitable crops. The cotton is yel- 
low and grows on bushes like trees that bear for seven years 
without replanting. These small trees produce as fine a grade 
of cotton as the famous "Sea Island," and it is often used for 
wool by manufacturers. Recently an American scientist found, 
on a small cotton plantation, over on the Inambari River, the 
parasite the world has been looking for to destroy the insect 
that has been injuring the cotton plants of the United States. 

Nothing grows better in Peru, where water is found at the 
proper elevation, than sugar-cane. The sugar plantations are 
immensely profitable, with any kind of decent care, as the cane 
grows the year around, and a small mill can work almost con- 
tinuously, while in the southern part of the United States and 
Cuba the cane mills must have capacity sufficient to take care of 
a whole year's crop in sixty days. 

The oil fields of Peru that have been developed produce a 
supply greater than the home market consumes. The fields are 
owned by English capitalists, and the operators export to Cali- 
fornia the oil and refine it into benzine and gasoline, using the 
fuel oils in Peru. The California oil will not make gasoline or 
benzine, and how nice and convenient it is for us to supply, free 
of duty, that territory from Peru by water freight ! 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE ANCIENT INCA CAPITAL. 

MODERN Cuzco is a study in the passing of the old and 
the coming of the new. Only in 1909 the railroad 
reached this city, and everything is now changing rapidly. A 
horse tram has been built to connect with the railroad station, a 

mile from the center of the 
city, which is built on the side 
of a mountain. One of the 
most objectionable features 
of the city, because it is 
forced upon the notice every- 
where one goes, is the open 
sewers, and though they are 
filled with running water, 
they constitute a nuisance 
which can be abated only 
when they are put under 
ground. This, we were as- 
sured, was in contemplation. 
Within twenty miles of the 
city there is an abundant 
water, power which will soon 
be transmitted by electricity 
to Cuzco for lighting pur- 
poses. Then this ancient 
capital of the Sun Worship- 
ers will no doubt enter a new 
era. 

In the old days, before the 

Spanish conquerors came, the 

Incas had one immense park 

J in the center of the city, but 




ANCIENT WATER FOUNTAIN, 
CUZCO, PERU. 



121 



122 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



the Viceroy of Spain cut this park into three plazas and built 
houses in between and around them, and while this spoiled the 
great park, it utilized the space to better advantage, for at this 
altitude, 10,500 feet above sea level, no one cares to walk about 
more than is necessary. 

The province of Cuzco has a population of about 400,000 
and is one of the chief political divisions of the Republic of 
Peru. The city, of Cuzco lies at the junction of three rivers. 
It is six hundred and forty-three miles from Lima, and five 
hundred and eight miles from Mollendo, the only port reached 
by railroad. The city, owing to its commanding position, is 
destined to become a great distributing center for the country to 
the north, east and west. To the north and east lies the great 
tropical and semi-tropical country, and in all directions there is 
a fertile grazing and agricultural country. In addition to these 
there are many rich mines which, with the coming of steam 
transportation, will be developed. 

The greatest copper discovery of the age is the Ferrobomba 
mines, forty miles northwest of Cuzco, where, it is said, there is 
a solid mountain of copper ore in sight. These mines can be 
worked at an altitude of 13,000 feet, while the Cerro de Pasco 
mines are worked at 14,500 feet. Ferrobomba district has been 
but slightly developed, it being necessary to await the extension 
These wonderful 



of the railroad 
mines have been 
trolled by an English 
reported that they 
hands of capitalists 






owned and con-; 
syndicate, but it is 
have passed into the 
of the United States. 




A CORNER OF PLAZA AND THE CATHEDRAL, CUZCO, PERU. 




GROUPS OF NATIVE INDIANS IN REGION OF CUZCO, PERU. 



124 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




BIRD S-EYE VIEW OF CUZCO, 



While the moneyed people of the United States are gradually- 
acquiring many of the "good things'' in South America, they for 
the most part buy second-hand, and have done little original 
prospecting or promoting on their own account. 

The private residences, offices, agencies and banks of Cuzco 
open onto beautiful patios, or courtyards, banked with flowers. 
Only shops open onto the streets. Common labor, by Indians, 
is very cheap, about thirty cents a day. Drunkenness among 
the common people seems to be the curse of the country. They 
make a vile home-brewed beer of anything that will rot and 
ferment, and of this they imbibe large quantities, with the usual 
disastrous results. 

The Prefect invited us to review the soldiers stationed in 
Cuzco, a force numbering five hundred and fifty men and of- 
ficers, and we accepted the invitation. Leading the column was a 
band of twenty-five pieces, which played as well as any military 
band that I have ever heard. Following the band came a 






THE OLD INCA CAPITAL OF PERU. 







squadron of cavalry well mounted and equipped, and following 
the cavalry was a battalion of infantry composed of sturdy, well- 
drilled and serious-looking soldiers. Behind them was a bat- 
tery of mountain artillery, small rapid-fire Maxim guns being 
mounted on mules. In times of war or revolution these bat- 
teries are the most efficient branch of the army, being able to 
get over the rough country and intervening mountains at a 
rapid pace. The soldiers wore clean, bright-looking uniforms, 
consisting of a blue cap and blouse, and short red trousers, the 
calf of the leg being covered with dark blue puttees. 

After reviewing the soldiers, we went with the Prefect to 
the market place in the Plaza San Sebastian. The Indian 
market women sit under little canvas tents, their wares in front 
of them, arranged in small piles, and they carry their goods to 
market on the backs of llamas or burros, if they are fortunate 
enough to own one. The market prices are more reasonable in 
Cuzco than in most other places in Peru. Lamb is sold for 5 



126 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




PREFECT AND SOME LEADING CITIZENS OF CUZCO, PERU. 



cents a pound; beef for 8 cents; chicken for 12J/2 cents; eggs 
for 12 cents a dozen ; potatoes for 2 cents a pound, and a dozen 
ears of fine sweet corn for 10 cents. Other articles of food are 
sold at equally reasonable prices. Speaking of things to eat, 
few people know that our first Irish potato was brought to 
Europe from near Cuzco. I secured two very rare Indian 
hand-woven vicuna ponchos, from which I will have a shooting 
suit made that I fancy will last me through the balance of my 
life. This cloth is very light, warm and waterproof. 

Every one puts on his "best bib and tucker" in Cuzco on 
Sunday. The stores close at ten in the morning and the city 
gives itself over to church-going and simple amusements. The 
parks are gay with people, and the air is thrilled at times by 
sounds from the deep-toned bell in the steeple of the massive 
stone cathedral on the Plaza de Armas. This great sonorous 
bell is famous throughout Peru, and is called the Maria Angela, 
its composition being largely of gold. It took ninety years to 



PERU 



127 



complete the cathedral and it unquestionably is a magnificent 
structure. The interior is divided by stately stone pillars into 
three naves or sections. In the central nave is the choir and in 
front of -it stands the high altar, covered with silver. In the 
Inca times the altars erected to the Sun were covered with gold, 
but the looting Spaniards carried most of that away and gave it 
over to baser uses. 

There are many churches and convents in Cuzco, built by 
the Spaniards after their conquest of the Incas, some of them 
being erected on the foundation of the walls of the Inca temple, 
while several of the old convents are used as shops by the 
merchants of Cuzco. The church of La Merced is built on the 
foundations of an ancient Inca temple which was dedicated to 
the worship of the Sun. The interior of this church is large, 
with great stairways of black granite running to the galleries 
above. The convent of Santo Domingo is built on the founda- 




A TYPICAL RETAIL SHOP OF GENERAL MERCHANDISE, CUZCO, PERU. 



128 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




SHOPS IN CORRIDOR OF PLAZA, CUZCO, PERU. 



tion walls of the Ceoricaucha, the richest of the Inca temples 
of worship, and a Christian altar occupies the very place where 
the Incas' sacred emblems to the Sun God were guarded by 
their high priests. The cells for the nuns in the convent of 
Santa Catalina are identically the same as those occupied by 
the Virgins of the Sun. 

In this there is something both poetical and fitting, since 
the spiritual conceptions of all peoples, when analyzed, are 
found to be essentially the same — adoration of the felt but un- 
seen intelligence that dominates the life of the universe. The 
ancient Incas felt and saw that Mighty Something in the daz- 
zling splendor of the Sun, the nuns of Santa Catalina look 
upon the crucifix and through that symbol of God's love men- 
tally conceive of the God that rules the Sun itself. In essence 
the prayers and adoration of both were probably much the 
same. 

Ancient Cuzco was the capital and treasure city of the 
Incas. The tribes under their dominion paid tribute, bringing 




Houses 



IN AND ABOUT CUZCO, PERU. 



ISO 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



great stores of gold and precious stones into the city. It held 
at that time, no doubt, the greatest store of treasure of any- 
city in the world. When the Spaniards conquered the Incas 
they acquired over $100,000,000 of gold alone, besides the 
other valuable treasures of the Inca temples in Cuzco. One 
fairly gasps at thought of this monumental loot. Every street 
and alley in Cuzco today tells the story of the power and prog- 
ress of the Inca empire, the old walls of Incaic architecture 
forming the basis of many of the later buildings. 

The Prefect of Cuzco arranged that my party should have 
horses belonging to the cavalry squadron, and accompanied by 
a guard of soldiers, with Indians carrying our cameras and 
kodaks, we climbed the mountain, on whose summit, seven 
hundred and forty feet above the city, are the ruins of the Inca 
fortress of Sacsahuaman. The ascent is so steep in places that 
steps have been cut to insure a safe footing. On the way to 
the summit we passed the ancient palace of the Inca Pachacu- 




WOMEN SELLING WARES IN TI 



PERU 



131 



tecs, and a little beyond the High Priests' Temple of the Sun. 
Near the temple ruins is the house once occupied by an Inca 
medicine man, its walls showing today seven serpents carved 
in relief on the fagade. There is no explanation of how the 
massive stones were brought here to construct these buildings, 
but it would be interesting to know, for one stone that I 
measured on the fortress of Sacsahuaman was thirty-two feet 
by twelve feet and very thick. 

The theosophical cult, I understand, claim to have received 
from the Mystics of India a curious explanation of how this 
seemingly impossible feat was accomplished. The Mystics say 
that the people of Egypt, who built the Pyramids, and these 
ancient Incas knew the secret of levitation ; that is to say, knew 
how to suspend the law of gravitation. The ancient Egyptians, 
they assert, and the ancient Incas derived this secret from the 
Atlantean Mystics, both the Egyptians and Incas having 
sprung, in remote prehistoric times, from that long-sunken 





RKET SQUARE, CUZCO, PERU. 




RUINED ENTRANCE TO THE INCA FORTRESS WHERE PIZARRO's 
BROTHER WAS KILLED, NEAR CUZCO, PERU. 





ANCIENT INCA FOUNDATION WALL IN CUZCO, PERU. THOUGH 

LARGE AND IRREGULAR IN SHAPE THE STONES ARE FITTED 

TOGETHER SO PERFECTLY A KNIFE-BLADE CANNOT 

BE INSERTED BETWEEN THEM. 



PERU 



133 



continent. The theory is interesting mainly because it is fan- 
tastic, for we cannot prove or disprove it. 

Near the fortress is a level plot on which Cuzco's modern 
society dances every clear Sunday afternoon. Near by are the 
Rodederos, great natural rocks, worn away at intervals to a 
depth of six inches. It was here the Incas used to have sliding 
races, the one first reaching the bottom receiving a pot of gold. 

Like all strong nations who feel too secure in their power 
and wealth, the Incas became lazy and unambitious, so the 
historians say, and hence were easily conquered by the Span- 
iards. The real explanation, however, of their downfall was 




MR. BOYCE ON HIS WAY TO INCA RUINS, CUZCO, PERU. 




A SMALL SECTION OF THE RUINS OF THE INCA FORTRESS, 
CUZCO, PERU. 




PORTION OF INCA FORTRESS OF OLLANTAYTAMBO, NEAR 
CUZCO, PERU. 



PERU 



135 



probably the fact that the Spaniards used the terrifice force of 
gunpowder with which to destroy them. Had the Incas 
known the secret of gunpowder as well as they did some other 
useful secrets, of which we are ignorant, no doubt history 
would record a different story. 

In Cuzco today are evidences of the grandeur in which the 
Spanish Viceroys lived. One of the leading merchants of 
Cuzco lives in the old palace of the Marquis Villambrosa, the 
first Viceroy. It is an extensive building with many rooms, 
surrounding a large patio, in which today are two old state 
coaches whose panels still retain the coat of arms of the 
Villambrosas. These coaches were drawn by four white Anda- 
lusian mules, and were used by the Viceroy and his family 
when they traveled. 

In Inca times Cuzco had a population of 200,000 ; today it 
has a population of 20,000; but with the advent of the railway 
Cuzco has experienced a mild "boom," and in ten years should 
have a population of 50,000. 

The ruins of Ollantaytambo, north of Cuzco, are most in- 
teresting. Here the sovereigns of ancient Cuzco had their 
favorite summer residences. The ruins consist of a fortress 
built on the top of a precipice one thousand feet high, com- 
manding a gorge through which the Urubamba River runs to 
the Convencion Valley, in the wild regions of the Amazon. 
The fortress is built of immense blocks of stone placed around 




THE RODEDEROS, THE INCA STONE SLIDING PLA( E. 




TYPE OF INDIANS WHO CHEW COCA LEAVES, FROM WHICH 
COCAINE IS MADE, PERU. 




MR. GULICK, SECRETARY TO MR. BOYCE, SEATED ON A GREAT STONE 
CALLED THE "iNCA THRONE/" NEAR CUZCO, PERU. 



PERU 



137 




A HARNESS SHOP IN ARCADE OF PLAZA, CUZCO, PERU. 



the ridge of the precipice, and one reaches the fortress by a 
winding stairway cut in the solid rock. Near the top of this 
stairway is a grotto known as the "Seat of the Inca's Daughter." 
In the center of the grotto is an altar six feet square, cut out of 
solid stone, where the Inca high priests performed the re- 
ligious rites, it is said, with accompanying human sacrifice, 
before the Emperor and his court and the people, assembled on 
the plains below. If the ancient Incas performed human sacri- 
fice, they seem in that respect to have entertained a reverence 
for the Creator as terribly profound as that of the ancient 
Druids of England. We can see today the grooves on the 
altar leading into the basin, where, it is believed, the blood of 
the sacrifice was received. 

Facing the "Seat of the Inca's Daughter," on the opposite 
side of the plain, is another cliff, and in the face of it is a 



138 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



series of ledges with numerous small caves along each one. 
These were used for political prisoners who, when condemned 
to death, were let over the top of the precipice above by ropes, 
put into one of the cells and left to die of starvation and thirst. 
Ordinary criminals, so tradition says, were just thrown from 
the top of the cliff. 

The governmental system of the ancient Incas seems to 
have been something like a pure Socialism, dictated by an abso- 
lute monarchy, a most curious combination. In reverence for 
their rulers, and in the subordination of themselves to 
the uses and purposes of the State, they were not unlike the 
Japanese; in their unification and absolute personal guidance 
by laws that were both civil and religious at the same time, 
their social structure was analogous to that of the ancient 
Hebrews. ■ However austere and faulty, to our own way of 
thinking, may have been their system of life, it apparently con- 




OLD INDIAN AND DAUGHTER, CUZCO, PERU. 



PERU 



139 



tained enough virtue to lift them from barbarism and make 
them finally one of the greatest and most amazing ancient na- 
tions of which we have historical knowledge. 




NATIVE INDIANS SEATED ON THE STEPS OF AN INCA RUIN. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



HEADWATERS OF THE AMAZON. 

A MANUFACTURER of witticisms has said that a woman 
seldom pays much attention to what her husband says un- 
less he is talking in his sleep. The obvious inference drawn 
from his "gem" is that a wife is most interested when a hus- 
band is likely to divulge his 
secrets. Readers, too, I have 
observed, are most interested 
when a writer is most frank. 
Hence I will confess that con- 
templation of our intended in- 
vestigation of the savage tribes 
of the regions . about the upper 
sources of the Amazon River 
was slightly disturbing. Pro- 
spective contact with poisoned 
Indian arrows, association with 
head hunters and beings that eat 
human flesh — if given a chance 
— are apt to overexcite the im- 
agination. Thus our party took 
the trail toward the headwaters 
of the Amazon with some mis- 
giving. 

Fifty-three tribes of Indians, 
speaking different dialects, in- 
habit the country about the 
affluent rivers of the Amazon 
headwaters. The real source of this king of rivers is in the 
higher Andes region of Peru, the river's fountain head being 
a lake about three miles across, called the Lauri Cocha. At 
first a little stream, it descends the mountain slopes of the 

140 




INDIAN MAIDEN FROM THE 
AMAZON HEADWATERS. 



142 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Peruvian Andes, and leaving them, penetrates South America 
eastward, flowing into the Atlantic 3,700 miles away. Many 
of the rivers flowing into the Amazon are dangerous to travel, 
as the banks and country on both sides are inhabited by Indians, 
some of whom are cannibals, and all of whom resent the en- 
trance of the white man into their territories. 

Traveling by primitive methods that have endured in this 
region for centuries, we set out for the upper Amazon country, 
from the "roof of the world." Furnished with mules both as 
pack animals and for riding, we started along the eastern trail 
toward the land of the Chunchos and the Campos Indians. It 
was a hard twenty-five-mile ride over a rough mountain trail 
from Oroya to Tarma, our first stopping place. Here we 
found the descendants of some of the first Spanish families 
who came to Peru. We stopped at a hotel called "The Grand 
Hotel of Europe" — dirty, smelling of onions, the beds with 
wooden slats, the food greasy and full of garlic. But, oh, 
grandeur! staring at us from every direction were large 
mirrors, there being twelve in my two rooms ! How many 
there were throughout this "Grand Hotel," we did not remain 
long enough to ascertain. 

From Tarma we rode for a day through an uncultivated 
country to Huacapistana, where we ate and slept in a so-called 
hotel, then were off the next morning at five o'clock for La 
Merced, which we reached in the late afternoon and found 
ourselves in the hot, tropical climate of the Chanchamayo 
River. We now were at the end of the Government telegraph 
lines, we bade adios to the last hope of communication with 
actual civilization for some days to follow. 

The constant jog, jog, jog of our mules became very tire- 
some, and we were glad in two days to reach the Perene 
Colony, which is an estate of a million and a quarter acres 
owned by the Peruvian Corporation. Here we found our- 
selves comfortably housed and fed, and it was exceedingly good 
to have a rest. On this big plantation they grow rubber and 
coffee and we had our first look at the Chuncho Indians on 
Sunday when they came into the colony store to trade. The 
Chunchos are all civilized to the point where they have lost 
their savagery, though they carry their bows and poisoned 







M 



A ROCKY ROAD LEADING TOWARD THE PERENE COLONY PERU. 



144 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



arrows, paint their faces, wear almost no clothing and live in 
bamboo huts plastered with mud. They are a shiftless, worth- 
less lot, entirely devoid of ambition, and live dirty, immoral 
lives. They have no traditions, few customs, and speak a mon- 
grel dialect. 

Beyond the Perene Colony lies that vast part of South 
America known as the headwaters of the Amazon, and the great 
Amazonian valley, which is one of the big things of the uni- 
verse. Leaving the last plantation of the Perene Colony, we 
loaded our baggage, supplies and selves onto native balsas 
(nothing but a few bamboo poles tied together with tough 
vines) and started down the Perene River. We were in the 
heart of the montaua (highland) country and among the 
Campos Indians, who retain many of their savage traits, and 
we were advised not to be startled if an occasional arrow should 
whiz by our heads. One of their customs is to torture the 
women or widows of all their dead warriors, or sell them to 
another tribe. In other words, the female does not count much 
with the Campos. The photographs we took will give the 
reader a clearer idea of how these Indians dress and live than 




ON THE ROAD TO THE PERENE COLONY, PERU. 




10 



146 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

I can picture in words. At night we got our tents, hammocks 
and mosquito nets, and taking turns at keeping guard, slept as 
well as conditions would permit. 

In no country can he found a more fertile land, and no- 
where have we seen such a variety of fruit, or more luxuriant 
vegetation. Wheat, maize, rice, sugar-cane, cacao, coffee, po- 
tatoes and cocoa abound, and we found the silkworm flourish- 
ing. The only need of this region is colonists and burro roads, 
and the Government is doing all in its power to secure them. 

We returned to Yapaz from our little trip down the Perene 
River and were presently again astride our sure-footed mules 
and had six days of hard riding to Puerto Yessup on the Pichis 
River. During these days we had not seen a house or a sign 
of a white man's habitation, and had only the Indians, monkeys, 
parrots, wonderfully colored butterflies and fleas for company. 

When it comes to eating, South America has some very 
odd dishes, which, however, when well cooked, will satisfy hun- 
gry men. In Africa I ate giraffe-tail soup, rhino tongue and 
ostrich eggs all at one meal, but it remained for our Indian 
cook in this tropical forest country to furnish parrot potpie and 
monkey stew. Personally, I preferred only the monkey's 
brains, which are quite good when fried, and look and taste 
more like sweetbreads than brains. The monkeys are very 
plentiful and it is no trouble to shoot all of them that you want. 
They jump from limb to limb and tree to tree, catching hold 
mostly by their tails. Next to the brains the hands of the 
monkey are the most palatable. The black monkey, called 
"Sambo," stands about two feet high, but is not considered as 
great a delicacy as the red monkey, which is about six inches 
shorter and has a larger head. The red monkey also has a 
pouch under his chin through which he can give out a peculiar 
sound. This pouch is regarded as a tidbit by the natives. 
There are numerous smaller monkeys, but we did not find them 
any finer food. 

Parrots make good potpie, but it is necessary to stew them 
from eight to twelve hours to make them tender. Mixed with 
rice and dried fruit, after being thoroughly cooked, then al- 
lowed to cool, to be warmed up for breakfast, one has a founda- 
tion for a hard day's work. In this region all game and fish 




riiiii .di'an? on Banks of Perane River 



INDIAN TYPES OF THE AMAZON HEADWATERS. 



148 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



must be cooked within a few hours after it is taken or it will 
spoil. Nothing will last from evening to morning unless it 
has been "fired." We found plenty of little red deer that 
would dress about fifty pounds, but as there is little or no 
grass and they browse on leaves, the meat is not very palatable. 
The monkeys and parrots feed more on nuts and seeds, hence 
the flesh is better. 

The tapir, a waterhog about the size of a small Jersey cow, 
and with a hide as tough as a young rhinoceros, is fine food. 
Droves of pecarri, or small wild hogs, were plentiful, and are 
considered rather dangerous when in big packs. They have in 
one spot on. their backs a bunch of bristles at the root of which 
is a deposit that must be cut away as soon as the animal is 
killed or the meat will become so tainted that it cannot be 
eaten. There is a large variety of game birds to live on if the 
traveler can take the time to hunt them. Only on portages 
around the rapids did I pay any attention to them, and then 
only as we ran across them. The largest of these game birds 




A SOUTH AMERICAN TAPIR. 



PERU 



149 




A PECCARY, THE WILD HOG OF SOUTH 
AMERICA. 



is about the size and shape of a four-months-old turkey, but is 
jet black. Its meat is very white and palatable, if not too old, 
when it is as tough as old parrot and requires a whole day's 
boiling. The grouse are different from our ruffed or pin- 
tailed kind, not being so large, while their feathers are nearly 
black and white. 

Another delicacy is doves' eggs, which are found deposited 
in the sand on the banks of streams. The doves do not "set" 
on their eggs, but let. the sun hatch them out. The eggs do 
not have a shell like our birds' eggs, but a tough film like a 
snake egg. Canned goods spoil so quickly under the tropical 
sun, and our Indian guides ate so much, that game of all kinds 
came in very opportunely, especially as the Indians understood 
very well how to prepare the different species we shot. We 
could have had any quantity of tropical fruit, but had to be very 
careful about eating it on account of the health of our party. 
We always boiled our water and only once did we have any 
fever. 

We found canoes at Puerto Yessup in which we went to 
Puerto Bermudez. From there we took a boat to Masisca on 
the Pachitea. On the left-hand bank of this river live the 



ISO ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Cashibos Indians, one of three cannibal tribes of Peru, and 
they are the most degenerate of all the Indians of South 
America. We found a Chinaman in a canoe, who came out to 
our boat. He is the only outsider or foreigner the Cashibos 
have allowed to live in their territory, and when we offered 
him salt he refused and we concluded he must have become 
a cannibal, too (cannibals eat no salt), although he did not 
refuse to eat the meat and potatoes we offered him. The 
Cashibos wear no clothes, shave their heads and make war 
on all other tribes. 

My man-servant, Charlie, is half South American Indian 
and half West Indian Negro, and speaks English, Spanish, 
French and most of the South American Indian dialects, and 
in our frequent meetings with savages he was invaluable in ex- 
plaining that we were on a peaceful journey. Charlie carried 
night and day a machete (big knife) and he knew how to use 
it, too. He had been living five years in Chicago before he 
came with me. The reader can make his own deductions. 

Reaching Masisca we were only a few days' journey from 
Iquitos, where the Ucayali and Marahon Rivers come together 
and form the Amazon proper. While in Masisca we ate some 
flesh of the cowfish, which is agreeable to the palate, the flavor 
being between that of beef and pork. The cowfish has a 
smooth body with a few scattered hairs and is of a lead color. 
The head is not large, but terminates in a large mouth with 
fleshy lips resembling a cow's. Behind the head are two power- 
ful oval fins, and just beneath them are the breasts from which, 
if pressure is applied, flows a stream of beautiful white milk. 
The cowfish is about seven feet long, and its forward fins are 
highly developed, resembling the human arm, and having devel- 




A COWFISH. 



152 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

opments somewhat resembling the human fingers. These ani- 
mal-fish feed on grass along the banks of rivers and the margins 
of lakes. 

We left Masisca in dugouts on the Alto Ucayali River, 
well outfitted and equipped, with our friendly Indian guides and 
paddlers all smiles as a result of the presents we had given 
them. The Alto Ucayali is a sluggish stream, its banks cov- 
ered with heavy tropical vegetation. We found some of the 
women and children of the cannibal Cashibos living in this 
region, having been sold to the Campos, Piros and Conibos 
tribes, which inhabit the territory along the Ucayali River. 
The Cashibos explain their cannibal customs by saying that 
they eat the white man in order that they may absorb some of 
his qualities into their yellow bodies. All along the Upper 
Ucayali we found immense rubber forests and trees of the 
cinchona bark, the well-known Peruvian bark used in the manu- 
facture of quinine. We enjoyed a good treat here, our first 
really palatable food in several days, for our Indians brought 
in some frogs that were from twenty-four to thirty-six inches 
long and weighing from two to three pounds each. These they 
skinned and cooked, not only the hind legs, as we do, but 
the whole frog, and the flesh tasted as sweet and tender as the 
best young spring chicken. After four days of travel toward 
the source of the Upper Ucayali we made our camp on the 
banks of the river near a small Indian village of the Conibos, 
and sent Charlie ahead with presents for the chief and his 
wives, and to see if the inhabitants were friendly. Charlie re- 
turned with messages of friendship and presents of fruit and 
an invitation for our party to visit the village, which we gladly 
accepted. The Conibos have the curious custom of tying their 
wrists and ankles tightly with thongs to increase, as they claim, 
their nerve force. The little village had about one hundred 
inhabitants, the men being employed on the big rubber plan- 
tations, when they were paid in advance. Experience has 
taught them this, for many times the owners of the rubber 
plantations have failed to pay the poor Indian his wages, and it 
is little wonder they are suspicious of, and often treacherous, 
in their treatment of the white man. 

We were received in style by the head man of the village 



PERU 153 

in his bamboo hut. He wore only a bright-colored cloth 
around his loins, and on his head a headdress made from the 
feathers of many-colored birds. Sitting on the floor behind 
him were his three wives, who handed us at his command coca 
leaves, which we were invited to chew. All the Indians of the 
Amazon country chew the coca leaf with as much pleasure as 
some Americans chew tobacco. The coca leaf really has the 
same effect as a drug, as it deadens the Indian's intellect, but at 
the same time increases his capacity of endurance and strength. 
Cocaine is made from such leaves as these people are in the 
habit of chewing. 

A dance was arranged at night for us, and the Indian men, 
nearly naked, with their bodies and faces painted with different 
colors, danced for nearly an hour to the beat of a curious sort 
of drum made from the skins of animals. 

We continued on our journey in five dugouts manned by 
twenty Indians — strong, lusty fellows, who kept up a low 
humming sort of song throughout the day. The days did 
not change much for us, the scenery being the same, and the 
journey grew very monotonous. It was really a relief when 
we had to make a portage, carrying our dugouts and outfit over- 
land to escape some impassable rapid or cataract. We were all 
more or less bitten by mosquitoes and insects, and my man, 
Charlie, looked as if he had the mumps. When we had made 
our camp in the evenings we set our lines for fish, and it was 
seldom we did not have a good mess of the finny fellows for 
supper, which we heartily enjoyed. 

Upon our journey into the headwater region of the Amazon, 
we were extremely glad to meet a white man — Professor Taylor 
of Harvard University, who had lived among and studied the 
habits and lives of the Jivaros tribe — the head-hunting Indians, 
who live along the Bobonaza and Morona Rivers, tributaries of 
the Amazon, which extend into Ecuador. It was our inten- 
tion to explore those rivers, but finding we could get reliable 
information from Professor Taylor we concluded to abandon 
this hazardous trip and will give the reader a synopsis of Pro- 
fessor Taylor's experience and deductions. 

Professor Taylor had explored those rivers twice ; the first 
time with one white companion, when neither knew the Ian- 



PERU 155 

guage or customs, and as a result his white companion was 
shot from the banks of the Bobonaza River by a poisoned ar- 
row and died. 

The Jivaros tribe resents the entrance of white men into 
their country, and on Professor Taylor's second trip to study 
them it was fortunate that he had acquired their dialect, and 
was able to cure a chief's son of a fever, or doubtless he would 
never have got out alive. The Jivaros people are the only 
head-hunting Indians of South America. Of their peculiar 
and horrible practice of curing and preserving the heads of the 
enemies they kill, I gave an account in my chapter on Ecuador. 
The Jivaros live in a constant state of warfare among them- 
selves. They are not content with tribal struggles, but families 
wage war against families. These family wars are brought on 
by the broughas (witch doctors). When any one is sick they 
send for the witch doctor, and if he can cure the patient with 
his herbs, all very well. But if the patient has some sickness 
he is unable to cure, the witch doctor swears a member of some 
family, naming the family, has put a chanute (curse) on the 
victim, whereupon the victim's family swear vengeance against 
the family of the person who has put on the curse and make 
a midnight assault on their enemy's house, taking as many 
heads as they can get, thus creating a feud and warfare be- 
tween the two families, which is taken up by all their relations 
and continued sometimes for years. 

These Indians are the most vigorous of all the South Amer- 
ican tribes. The men have three or four wives, some of whom 
have been won in combat. The older women, males and male 
infants captured in battle, have their heads cut off, while the 
young girls, from twelve to fifteen years of age, are kept as 
wives by the victors, and the female children are kept until they 
are of marriageable age. Jivaros women are sometimes very 
pretty, they wear only a loin cloth, and the men are very jealous 
of them. 

The world is interested in the opening up of water and rail 
routes connecting the Amazon and the Pacific Ocean. The 
Peruvian Corporation promised the Government when it took 
over the State railroads that it would furnish an outlet to the 



PERU 157 

Amazon under certain conditions. Thus far this corporation 
has made surveys from Oroya to Tarma only. 

The Cerro de Pasco Railroad Company, controlled by the 
Cerro de Pasco Alining Company, has made surveys and esti- 
mates of the cost of a road from its line to the navigable 
headwaters of the Amazon. The Peruvian Government has 
agreed to pay the interest on bonds, in addition to conceding a 
large land grant, in order to have the road speedily constructed. 
It is commonly believed this will be the first company to furnish 
connection between the Amazon waters and the present rail 
head. 

A corporation backed by the great Krupp Gun Manufactur- 
ing Company, of Germany, has also made a survey near the 
northern boundary of Peru, from a fine harbor on the Pacific 
coast to the navigable tributaries of the Amazon. For making 
the survey and report, which were carefully prepared, the 
Peruvian Government gave the corporation a very valuable 
mining concession. Without question the three corporations 
that have made surveys are financially able to construct lines of 
railroad, and within ten years we will doubtless be able to sail 
up the Amazon to its headwaters, and cross over the Andes by 
rail and down to the Pacific Ocean, a distance of about four 
thousand five hundred miles, or make the journey vice versa. 
Probably it would be twenty years before such a road would 
pay, and at present there are no good commercial or traffic rea- 
sons for the road, but the Peruvian Government considers it 
necessary for the development of the country, and their attitude 
is entirely justified by the conditions. 



CHAPTER IX. 
' JOURNEYS IN SOUTHERN PERU. 

FROM Cuzco to Arequipa, Peru, about five hundrea miles, 
there are a number of towns of some importance, and the 
people and buildings are such as are characteristic of this 
unique country. The market square, cathedrals and churches 
looked much alike, and varied in proportion to the population 
and importance of the cities I passed through. 

The Peru Southern Railway is under the capable manage- 
ment of Mr. H. A. McCulloch, native of our own Lone Star 
State, and a past master in the business of managing railroads. 
When Mr. W. L. Morkill took the presidency of the Peruvian 
Corporation, which owns all the railroads of Peru, he was 
located in the City of Mexico, where he had been residing for 
many years. Two days after his arrival in Lima he cabled to 
Mexico for Mr. McCulloch. That was four years ago. The 
six hundred miles of Southern Peruvian Railroad was at that 
time being operated at a loss, the cost of operation alone being 
ninety-two cents on each dollar of receipts. Such reforms 




A PACK TRAIN LEAVING FOR CAJAMARCA, PERU 
158 



PERU 159 

were inaugurated that in 19 10 the road was operated at fifty- 
two cents on the dollar, leaving a handsome dividend for the 
stockholders. Freight and passenger rates are about the same 
as in the United States. The roadbed is splendidly kept up, 
the rolling stock is in good condition, the employes are loyal 
and satisfied, and the trains run on time. It pays to employ 
trained, scientific managers, you observe. 

The "branch lines" of the railroad are the llama and burro 
pack trains. It requires two hundred llamas or one hundred 
and fifty burros to carry one carload of freight into the inte- 
rior, and from every station one may see the "branch lines" de-- 
part for their destination in the mountains, a most novel and 
picturesque spectacle. There are some big mules in this 
Peruvian country that can carry from two hundred to three 
hundred pounds, the heaviest piece of freight possible to pack 
being six hundred pounds, the article being slung between a 
pair of mules which are changed every two hours. This is 
unique "railroading," but it pays and is effective. 

Between the high mountain ranges are fertile valleys where 
grass is grown and cattle, sheep, alpacas and llamas are raised. 
Sugar-cane is grown near Cuzco at an elevation of 8,500 feet. 
When the Incas occupied this territory the population was 
about ten times what it now is. No doubt, with time, the present 
population will be greatly increased. The mass of the people 
seem to be contented, and it is quite evident that they are happy 
after their fashion, the majority of them being barefooted, 
dirty and obviously healthy. 

At Sicuani our train stopped for the night. Owing to a 
recent small revolution in this region there was an execution to 
take place at Sicuani early the next morning, and the natives 
were greatly excited. For some reason our identity was mis- 
understood and an angry crowd gathered around our private 
car, which we did not leave. The conductor wished to put our 
car in the train-shed with the engine and other cars, but I ob- 
jected, remembering the disastrous fate of the Pennsylvania 
militia at the time of a certain labor strike in Pittsburgh, so our 
car was left outside, and we loaded our revolvers. 

During the night the cook on the car, whose curiosity was 
greater than his caution, went out. We did not hear him 



PERU 



161 




MINES OF LA FUNDICION, PERU. 



going, but awakened as his foot touched the step of the car on 
his return. As the door opened he was covered with two guns, 
but our "boy" Charlie stopped further belligerent moves by 
yelling, "It's the cook !" It wasn't exactly pleasant to fancy 
what might have happened. All night long a band played 
funeral music, and early next morning we witnessed the ex- 
ecution. It was a depressing occurrence and we were glad 
when the train pulled out. 

Quitting the train at Tirapata, at an elevation of about 13,- 
000 feet, we traveled over the Inca Mining Company's wagon 
road, passing the night at Ceatac, a station of the mining com- 
pany at the foot of an extinct volcano, which is reputed to be 
22,000 feet high. After passing what is known as Acopampa 
Bridge, flowers, shrubs and vegetation in general began, and 
from there to the Inambari River the trip became a most en- 
joyable one. At Casahuri we found a coffee plantation belong- 
ing to the Inambari Para Rubber estate, at an elevation of 
about 4,500 feet above sea level. From there we proceeded to 
Port Seddon, which is the camp and shipping yard of the 
Inambari Gold Dredging Concessions, Limited, where opera- 
tions were soon to begin. According to William Bach, who 
was sent out to examine and report on the Inambari River, 
prior to the formation of the gold company, the average 
dredgable values taken from surface pannings were over $1.75 
to the cubic yard. This company, which has three hundred 
miles of the river leased, was organized by Mr. George W. 
11 



1 62 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Sessions, an old California miner, and it is believed that the 
company has one of the richest mining concessions in the entire 
world. 

Placer or alluvial gold is found in small quantities in almost 
all the streams on the eastern slope of the Andes. These placer 
deposits are at present washed indifferently and in a crude 
manner by the Indians, who trade their gold to traveling mer- 
chants for cloth and other commodities. Another company, 
organized with British capital, will soon have several hydraulic 
giants in operation, by means of which powerful streams of 
water will be made to wash the gravel from its resting place in 
the high banks into sluice boxes where the gold will be caught 
on riffles and mercury. This company claims that they have 
millions of yards of gravel averaging forty cents gold per cubic 
yard. Much depends upon the results obtained by these two 
companies, and should success crown their efforts, which is 
justly due these pioneers, the future of Peru's placer gold min- 
ing industry will be assured, since there are many thousands of 
acres of ground that might be profitably worked by such 
methods. 

While on the subject of mining, a glance at the industry in 
Peru may be appropriately introduced at this point. I investi- 
gated the subject with a practical mining engineer from Minne- 




SCENE IN THE MARKET SQUffll 



PERU 



163 



apolis, Minnesota, and the following mining data can be relied 
upon. In 1910 Peru produced 25,000 long tons of pure copper, 
valued at approximately $7,300,000. Seventy-five per cent of 
this production may be credited to the Cerro de Pasco Mining 
Company. Backus and Johnson, operating a smelter at Casa- 
palca, on the Peruvian Central Railway, provided 2,000 tons or 
about eight per cent of Peru's 1910 copper output, and the 
remaining seventeen per cent was derived from various small 
private smelting concerns throughout the republic, and from 
raw ores shipped directly to the United States and Europe for 
treatment. 

All the ores treated in the country are smelted either in 
reverberatory or blast furnaces, the resultant product being 
metallic copper or matte. The former, technically known as 
"blister copper," is shipped to and refined electrolytically in 
New Jersey, when it is ready for the market in its purest form. 
The matte is a sulphide of iron and copper and is usually 
shipped and sold as such in the United States, where it is again 
melted and subjected to a process known as "converting," the 
product being "blister copper" which is treated as above de- 
scribed. Any precious metals contained in the "blister copper" 
or "matte" are recovered separately and treated by a special 
process. 




SICUANI, PERU. 



164 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




THE MULE MARKET, HUANCAYO, PERU. 



As most of the known copper deposits of Peru are situated 
in the mountains and long distances from the coast, the develop- 
ment of that branch of the mining industry depends upon the 
building of railroads. Labor is exceedingly cheap, a native 
Indian miner receiving fifty cents per day, and considering the 
price, his work is fairly efficient. Climatic conditions in the 
extreme high altitudes are generally severe, but foreigners, 
providing they do not play alcohol against nature, withstand the 
conditions admirably, once they are acclimated. 

After all, the romance of Peru is "silver." Silver it was 
that the first Spaniards and Portuguese mined, over two hun- 
dred years ago, and it was silver that tempted those bold 
English pirates, who followed like hawks the Spanish galleons 
loaded with the precious metal, and finally, too much silver 
from Peru was probably the real cause of Spain's decadence. 
In those old days, before Peru was a republic, there existed 
a law requiring all miners to deliver, free of expense, a fifth 
of their product to the crown. This was known as the Quinta 



PERU 



165 



del Rey, and many are the tales of "graft" that is said to 
have been perpetrated by the royal agents when those untold 
millions were shipped to the mother country. 

However, today, the silver industry is but a specter of what 
it was in the times of the early Viceroys, and the present an- 
nual production is but a small fraction of that obtained two 
hundred years ago. The Cerro de Pasco Company's ore con- 
tains some silver, for this district was the most noted producer 
of the metal in Peru, and in 1910 this country, due to their 
smelting operations, contributed 2,300,000 ounces with a value 
of $1,150,000. 

The few small, scattering mines in the republic, operating 
solely for silver, usually employ what is known as the lixiviat- 
ing or hypo-sulphite process. Sulphide or refractory ores are 
first roasted with salt in reverberatory furnaces, fired with the 
guano or excrement of the . llama (an ideal and generally 
the only available fuel in the barren mountains), which converts 
the silver in the ore into a soluble chloride. Thence the ore is 
treated in small wooden or stone tanks with liquid hypo- 
sulphite of soda, and when the solution of the silver is com- 




MARKET AND FAIR AT HUANCAYO, PERU. 



166 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

plete, it is precipitated as silver sulphide, and either shipped as 
such to European refineries or melted directly into silver bars. 

A small quantity of raw, high-grade silver ore is exported 
annually, but as the ore-bearing veins are usually extremely 
narrow and the properties far from railways, the profit derived 
is small. 

While Peru has been, essentially, a silver and copper coun- 
try I have found very little evidence of her importance as a 
gold producer. Some historians even claim that the vast golden 
treasures of the Incas, known to have been in existence in Caja- 
marca and Cuzco, and much of which fell into the hands of the 
Spanish conquerors, came from Colombia, which has always 
been noted as a gold country. 

In truth, there is not one company of note in Peru now 
producing gold. The Cerro de Pasco Company (an exception) 
contributed almost the entire output for 1910, about 11,500 
ounces valued at $230,000, and this was practically produced as 
a by-product. 

The "Santo Domingo," a quartz mine, equipped with a 
stamp mill and cyanide plant in the Sandia district, though con- 
trolled by American capital, and which has produced several 
million dollars of gold, was lying idle. But in the same district 
the "Montebello," a native company, was developing several 
promising veins from which beautiful specimens of native gold 
have been taken and the company is contemplating the erection 
of a stamp mill. 

Arequipa,, with 60,000 inhabitants, is the second city of im- 
portance in Peru. It lies in a fertile valley one hundred and 
seven miles from the coast and is the headquarters of the 
Southern Railway of Peru, the railroad shops, in which five 
hundred men are employed, being located there. Northeast 
of the city is beautiful Mt. Misti, towering skyward 20,000 feet, 
snow capping its top with gleaming white throughout the entire 
year. Harvard University has astronomical and meteorologi- 
cal observatories near Arequipa, the meteorological station 
being the highest in the world — 16,280 feet above sea level, or 
2,000 feet higher than Pike's Peak. Tramways connect differ- 
ent parts of the city, which is lighted by electricity and has a 
good telephone service. Its hotels are very bad, but there is a 



1 68 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




THE CRATER OF MOUNT MISTI, PERU. 

restaurant run by an Italian, whose name is Morisini, where I 
got the best dinner I had in a public restaurant while in Peru. 

The Jesus Springs, near Arequipa, are famous the world 
over for curing gout and rheumatism, and people from every 
section of civilization, who can afford the trip, come here to 
drink the water and bathe in the springs. Some marvelous 
cures have been made, and as the water is bottled by a local 
company it will soon be exported to Europe and the United 
States. 

The buildings of Arequipa are in most part constructed of a 
light-colored, porous, volcanic stone, brought from quarries 
near by. The walls of the buildings are often three to six 
feet thick, and windows facing the street are protected with 
iron bars. They look as if built to resist earthquake shocks. 




THE HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY, NEAR AREQUIPA, PERU. 
MOUNT MISTI IN THE BACKGROUND. 



PERU 



169 



Since, ultimately, the rubber industry of Peru promises to 
be very great, and since the development of the automobile, and 
many other inventions, makes the demand for rubber enormous 
throughout the world, a brief resume of Peru's resources in 
the way of this commodity may prove valuable to some readers. 

There are three things necessary to make the rubber in- 
dustry of Peru one of the most, if not the most, important 
industry of the country. These are effective means of trans- 
portation (railroads, cart roads and burro roads), capital for 
development, and the necessary labor, with the proper men to 
handle and manage the same. The great rubber territory of 
Peru is embraced by the Madre de Dios (Mother of God), 
Tambopata, Tambari, Heath and Ucayali Rivers. 

The Government has made large grants or concessions to 
companies and individuals in the rubber territory, and in most 
part these companies or individuals have only to build a cart or 
burro road to comply with the conditions imposed by the Gov- 
ernment to make the grants perpetual. Rubber properties may 
be bought outright from the Government for one dollar a 
hectare (about two and one-half acres), or an individual may 




NATIVES SMOKING RUBBER IN RUBBER DISTRICT, INTERIOR PERU. 



170 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



export rubber from Government land by paying five cents per 
acre rental per annum. 

The value of a rubber "estate" is figured by the number of 
laborers that can be obtained, not by the number of rubber 
trees, and at present labor is undoubtedly scarce in the country. 
Some writers have said that the Indians of the interior rubber 
country are man-eaters and impossible as workmen. I find this 
a misstatement. There are Indians in the rubber forests, who, 
properly managed and treated with kindness and tact, make as 
fine laborers as can be found anywhere in the world. The trou- 
ble has been that white men have gone into some of the rubber 
districts and ill-treated the Indians ; naturally these red people 
have sometimes been savage and resentful. 

This is a common phase of human experience ; well-intend- 
ing men have always had to suffer loss and restrictions of free- 




GENEKAL VIEW OF TH 



PERU 



17.1 



dom by reason of the wrong things done by the mean and 
and foolish. An acquaintance of mine who is very bald once 
sat reading, while a half-dozen flies were skating across and 
having a good time upon his shining bald crown. He gave them 
no heed, until finally one of the flies bit him, when he reached up 
his hand and brushed them off impatiently. "There," he said, 
"of course you couldn't enjoy a good thing when you had it; 
one of you had to bite me and spoil the whole game ; now you 
all have got to quit and get off the skating-rink," and he aimed 
another slap at them that sent them flying. The moral is ob- 
vious. 

The first thing a capable and knowing manager does in 
taking charge of a rubber estate is to plant rice, bananas, maize 
and yuca (a kind of large potato) to insure food for his labor- 
ers, and as the land is very fertile, this is a quick and easy 



illlSf 9£i£ii 

w tm wk. m§ lv HI I 




' < 3A- 




\ZA OF AREQUIPA, PERU. 



i;2 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




INDIAN WOMEN SELLING CARVED IMAGES, 
JULIACA, PERU. 

proposition. Some estates have imported Japanese workmen, 
but it is said they are impossible in the rubber forests. They 
destroy the trees, are unclean in their habits and demoralize the 
Indians with whom they come in contact. The destruction of 
the trees is a very serious matter, for it is entirely unnecessary. 
As it requires fifteen years for a tree to reach full maturity, 
their ruthless slaughter removes the industry farther and 
farther away from transportation. 

My attention was particularly called to the Tambopata Rub- 
ber Syndicate's great rubber territory at the headwaters of 
the Tambopata River. This company has been the most suc- 
cessful in Peru in obtaining labor and rubber, and its success 
is due to the experience and management of Mr. Arthur C. 
Lawrence, who has supervised rubber estates in Mexico and 
Bolivia. The company is an English syndicate, and until re- 
cently its properties were in Bolivia, but with the readjustment 
of the Peru-Bolivia boundaries, the concession became a part of 
Peru. 

There are two kinds of rubber obtained in Peru, the hevea 
(the best Para) and the castilloa (or concha, as it is improperly 
called by the Indians). The trees are tapped (cut) by men 






PERU 



173 



called tappers, every day except Sunday and feast days, during 
the season of seven months. Each workman taps from one 
hundred to one hundred and fifty trees a day. The tappers are 
paid from thirty-five to forty cents per pound for fine, or hevea, 
rubber. The cost of a quintal (100 pounds) of rubber de- 
livered in Europe is seventy-five dollars, or seventy-five cents a 
pound, and as it is sold for over a dollar a pound, you see there 
is a big profit the industry, notwithstanding the great diffi- 
culty of getting it out of the forests of Peru. 

Mollendo is the coast terminal of the Southern Railway of 
Peru. The town is built upon a rock one hundred feet above 
the sea and has a population of 5,000 people. The port has a 
pier about three hundred and thirty feet long and two five-ton 
steam cranes, but it is necessary to load and discharge cargoes 
by means of lighters. Water for domestic and other purposes 
is obtained from the Chile River, eighty-five miles away and 
7,275 feet above sea level. The water is brought to the town 
through an eight-inch iron pipe belonging to the railway com- 
pany. 

Mollendo is a submarine cable station, and has communica- 




STONE BRIDGE OVER CHILE RIVER, AREOUIPA, PERU. MOUNT 
MISTI IN BACKGROUND. 



174 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




INTERIOR OF LA MERCED CHURCH, AREQUIPA, PERU. 



tion by steamer with ports on the western coast of South 
America, and with San Francisco, New York and European 
ports. Wireless telegraph stations have been established in 
Peru connecting the principal points ; an aviation school under 
the direction of the Government has been inaugurated ; a com- 
prehensive scheme to encourage emigration to the far interior 
valleys has the sanction and aid of the State authorities, and 
students are being sent to the great educational institutions of 
the United States in numbers, some with free scholarships pro- 
vided by the Peruvian Government. These are a few examples 
of the spirit of progress that is abroad in Peru. 

The expression "Church and State" would better explain 
Peru's condition if it were reversed to "State and Church." 
For nearly three hundred years the Catholic Church was 
supreme in matters of State, but that time has passed. A 
highly-educated and broad-minded Christian gentleman of one 
of the leading families of Peru expressed the situation to me 
as follows: 

"The Catholic Church still receives some financial support 



176 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

from the Government, but its political power is fast disappear- 
ing. Several bishops are members of Congress, being elected 
by the voters of their districts, and they exercise considerable 
influence on legislation. The churches are not so well attended 
as formerly, women and children being the most constant in 
attendance. Once each year, every man, woman and child, 
true to the faith, devotes an entire day exclusively to public 
religious duties." The Catholic Church of Peru is fast assum- 
ing the same relation to the State that the churches in the 
United States occupy. 

The future of Peru is not difficult to forecast. No nation 
in South America has had so many difficulties to overcome. 
First, within the age of recorded history, the country was 
wholly Indian, under the rule of the Inca worshipers of the 
Sun ; second, an Indian country under Spanish rule, dominated 
by a Christian (Catholic) religion, greedy for wealth and 
power; third, a new republic of mixed races and a forced re- 
ligion. The resources of the country depended upon labor — 
not always willing or free ; the country was rent by almost con- 
stant revolutions, and though it was rich in minerals, nitrates, 
sugar, cotton, rubber, rare woods, cattle, sheep, grains and all 
tropical products, industry stood stagnant while sectional feuds 
were fought. The great war with Chile was a blessing in dis- 
guise, for while it made the rich poor, the strong weak, and 
robbed Peru of her splendid nitrate fields, it closed and healed 
many of the feuds and causes of revolutions, and left Peru one 
nation, one country, and everybody for Peru, and not for them- 
selves. 

Dire necessity has forced the Government to be tolerant, 
fair and as unselfish as the most liberal country in the world. 
The men and women of the leading families are cultured, edu- 
cated and generous ; many of them speak English and French 
as well as Spanish, and while their homes are exclusive, their 
hospitality is the most genuine I have ever experienced. Their 
laws are fair to foreigners, and are enforced, and capital is se- 
cure and protected. With the opening of the Panama Canal, 
Peru will sustain a closer relation with the United States, and 
we will become close neighbors and better friends. 




PHYSICAL 




F SOUTH AMERICA 



BOLIVIA 

Area, estimated at 709,000 square miles, or about the size of 
France, Belgium and Holland combined, and a little smaller 
than Mexico — Third republic in size in South America — 
Popidation, about 2,300,000, of which only one-fifth are 
white, the remainder being Indians and mixed races — 
Large producer of silver, tin, copper and rubber — Exports 
(1910) $22,700,000, imports $14,775,000 — La Pas nominal 
capital, population 80,000 — Standing army 2,500, subject 
to service in time of war 240,000. 



CHAPTER X. 

BOLIVIA AND THE WORLD' S OLDEST CITY. 

BOLIVIA was named for Bolivar, the Liberator. Its 
earlier and later history is of a like character with that of 
Peru, save that it is, if possible, a still more dramatic and terri- 
ble story. Bolivia's history, of which there is actual chronicle, 
began in the days when the great Inca brothers, Huascar and 
Atahualpa, were contending for the mastery. The strife 
of those wars was succeeded by the years of carnage embodying 
the Spanish conquest, and after that by long decades of 
slavery to the Castilian tyrants. Follow- 
ing this dreadful era came the wars of 
Bolivar, and Bolivia became the central 
battle-ground of one of the fiercest and 
most protracted revolutionary struggles 
of which we have any knowledge. 

When, after fifteen years of war, the 
Spaniards at last were overthrown and 
liberty was won, there followed more 
than a half-century of misrule under dif- 
ferent dictators and official scoundrels. 
But measurable peace and security finally 
settled upon the Great Plateau, and the 
modern movement toward prosperity and 
national greatness began. 




A CHOLA GIRL, 
BOLIVIA. 



12 



177 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




MR. BOYCE, MR. HORACE G. KNOWLES, UNITED STATES MINISTER 
TO BOLIVIA, AND MR. GULICK. 



In its physical features Bolivia is very distinguished. No 
other country, as a whole, rises quite so near the sky, unless 
it is Thibet, China. The major part of the population live 
their lives in the rarefied atmosphere of 12,000 feet above sea 
level. Piercing the heavens from Bolivia's enormous plateau, 
rise the greatest number of lofty mountains found in any 
country, save northern India. This cloud-kingdom has been 
aptly compared to Switzerland by an appreciative writer. 
He says : 

"Bolivia is the third largest of the South American repub- 
lics, and, like Switzerland, must be entered through foreign 
territory, for since the last war with Chile she has had no 
outlet to the sea over her own territory. But Bolivia shares 
with Switzerland the advantages of a mountainous country, 



BOLIVIA 



179 




A GLIMPSE OF LAKE TITICACA. 



difficult of access by enemies, and capable of rearing and 
sustaining a sturdy race of progressive, liberty-loving people. 

"Infinitely behind Switzerland in education, stable civil 
government, refinement and cleanliness of the people, it is 
yet like Switzerland in present day prosperity, while its re- 
sources are infinitely beyond Switzerland's, if only they were 
developed. Bolivia is a Switzerland of loftier Alps, larger 
lakes, and far more extensive table-lands, a Switzerland with 
silver, copper, and tin in unlimited quantities ; a Switzerland 
that can produce rubber, cacao, and quinine as can no other 
land, were these riches fully developed ; a Switzerland where 
every product of the temperate or tropical zone will flourish." 

I came to Bolivia by rail, arriving at Puno, on the Peru- 
vian side of Lake Titicaca, at six-thirty o'clock in the even- 
ing, in the midst of a heavy rainstorm. One half of Lake 
Titicaca is in Peru, and the other half in Bolivia, which fact 
gives rise to the saying among the Peruvians that "Titi be- 
longs to us, while Caca belongs to the Bolivians." 

This lake, which is the highest navigable body of water 
in the world, is situated 12,500 feet above sea level, and the 
boat on which we were to cross the lake to Bolivia was 
brought from Europe in parts by sea, and from the coast up 
to the Great Plateau by rail, and put together on the shore 
of the lake. Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South Amer- 



180 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

ica, being one hundred and fifty-five miles in length and hav- 
ing an average width of forty-four miles. Its water is always 
icy cold, and a curious fact about it is that no metal, even 
iron or steel, will rust in it. This large body of water is an 
irregular oval in shape, having many bays along its coast, 
and in its interior are eight large and fifteen small islands. 
The outlet of Lake Titicaca is the Desaguadero River, which 
flows into Lake Poopo, another large lake wholly in Bolivia. 
Lake Poopo lies 12,000 feet above sea level, is about the size 
of the State of Rhode Island and has no visible outlet. 

We were met at the boat by Mr. Fairweather, general 
manager of boats and traffic on Lake Titicaca, who saw that 
we were given comfortable quarters aboard the Inca Queen, 
to give the boat its English name. We were up early the fol- 
lowing morning to see some of the beauties of the lake and 
surroundings. It was cold, due to the wind sweeping down 
from the glaciers topping the mountains on either side of the 
lake, and we were glad to put on our overcoats. 

On the shores of Lake Titicaca are the ruins of large 
buildings erected by a race that inhabited this region before 
the rise of the Incas. There is a legend that these people 
were the progeny of the South American Adam and Eve, who 
lived in the prehistoric Garden of Eden on the beautiful 
Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun), in Lake Titicaca. Accord- 
ing to the tradition, Adam and Eve lived here for thousands 
of years, their children emigrating to the lands beyond the 




ON LAKE TITICACA, BOLIVIA. 



1 82 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



mountains. At one time, so the Indian story goes, Adam 
became incensed at some of his children in the interior, and 
taking a great slungshot, fired a heavy granite stone in the 
direction of his bad children. The great stone struck the 
side of a mountain, tearing a big slice from it, which in fall- 
ing, destroyed the rebellious children. 

We arrived at Guaqui at ten-thirty o'clock, and owing to 
the courtesy of the Bolivian minister in Lima, who had given 
me a letter to the captain of the port, our baggage was al- 
lowed to pass through the custom house without inspection. 
We were met at Guaqui by Mr. J. Pierce Hope, the general 
manager of the railroad from Guaqui to La Paz, with whom 
we started in his private car on our journey to La Paz, the 
capital of the republic of Bolivia. 

Our car was sidetracked at Tiahuanaco, dubbed the old- 
est city in the world, so that we might view and take photo- 
graphs of the old pre-Inca ruins, and on our journey about 
the place we were followed by a curious group of Indians 
and their dogs. We walked through the old burying ground 
of the pre-Inca people, and found it much like a dumping 
ground. Archeologists have excavated here and have turned 




ON THE STEPS OF THE SUN TEMPLE, TIAHUANACO, BOLIVIA. 



BOLIVIA 

up thousands of pre-Inca 

bones, which we found 

lying all about. I picked 

up a large thigh bone, 

which had likely been of 

great service to its owner 

centuries ago, and hit one 

of the mongrel dogs, as it 

was snapping at my heels. 

But it had no effect. The 

occurrence suggested to me 

the old adage : "You can't 

make a dog yelp by hitting 

him with a bone." 

It is interesting to. note 

the construction of the pre- 
Inca foundations and to 
marvel at the huge granite 
stones so nicely and evenly 
put together. Studying the 
topography of the sur- 
rounding country, I con- 
cluded that these great 
stones must have been 
brought from the moun- fragments of a pre-inca ruin. 

tains by water, through 

channels constructed by this prehistoric race. The railroad 
has taken out five hundred carloads of stone from Tiahua- 
naco to construct bridges along its line, but none of these 
stones has an inscription on it. There are four large stone 
steps leading to a head step, which is a huge single hewn 
stone 32x16 feet, and on each side of it are two heavy pillars. 
This is supposed to be the entrance to the court of the temple 
that the prehistoric people here built to the Sun. All around 
are curious stone figures with strange inscriptions on them. 
Archeologists tell us that in Tiahuanaco flourished the most 
advanced of the ancient American civilizations. 

In this quarter of Bolivia we found the Aymara Indians, 
descendants of a people conquered by the Incas just before 




1 84 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



the coming of the Spaniards. It is very cold in Tiahuanaco, 
but the natives do not seem to mind it ; they go barelegged, 
but keep their heads warm, tying bands of cloth woven from 
llama wool over their hair under their hats. 

After our inspection of the ruins, our car was attached 
to a special engine, and we were whirled away toward La 
Paz. We arrived at Alto La Paz, about 14,000 feet above 
sea level, at seven o'clock in the evening, and our car was 

attached to an electric en- 
gine, for we had to descend 
1,500 feet into the valley, 
where lies the city of La 
Paz. I shall never forget 
my first view of the highest 
capital in the world as we 
came up to it in the night. 
It looked like a picture in 
Fairyland, as it lay spread 
out in the valley below, 
illuminated by thousands 
of electric lights, and high 
above all, shining like a 
beacon, the great arc light 
on the monument erected 
to Pedro Murillo, the first 
Bolivian patriot to shout, 
"Viva, Bolivia !" and advo- 
cate rebellion against the 
Spaniards. Unfortun ate 
man ! The Spaniards cap- 
tured him and cut off his 
head ! Nevertheless, con- 
template free Bolivia ! It 
is the lesson of history that 
every step forward gained 
by the human race has 
been won by struggle and 
sacrifice. 

The valley in which La 




A MONOLITH AT TIAHUANACO, 
BOLIVIA. 



BOLIVIA 



<85 



Paz lies is surrounded by mountains, the highest of which is 
the snow-capped Illimani, 22,500 feet above the sea. The 
Chuquiyupu River, formerly rich in gold, flows through the 
city. The construction of the buildings of La Paz is exceed- 
ingly substantial. The houses are of Spanish style, with 
thick walls of stone or adobe, and roofs of terra cotta tile. 
The walls and roofs are painted in variegated colors, ranging 
from solid red or blue to the most delicate shades of pink and 
lavender. The city is very hilly, and one will pause two or 




MR. BOYCE IN DOORWAY OF AN ALMOST OBLITERATED TEMPLE, 
AT TIAHUANACO, BOLIVIA, THE OLDEST CITY IN THE WORLD. 



1 86 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




three times to get his 
breath as he climbs from 
one street to another. In 
fact, it is so steep that all 
carriages have four horses 
attached. 

They have no earth- 
quakes here, which is for- 
tunate, on account of the 
elevation. In this c i t y 
most of the packages and 
freight are delivered on 
the human back. I saw 
one small man with two 



THE OLDEST MAN IN BOLIVIA, AND 
A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF THE 
INCAS. 

hundred pounds of flour going up 
a seventeen per cent grade. All 
coffins are delivered by being car- 
ried on the head, either "empty or 
loaded." To save lumber and at 
the same time make a pillow in the 
coffin they are scooped out under- 
neath the head. Many coffins are 
made from packing boxes, as lum- 
ber costs $135 per 1,000 feet. 

There seem to be no barred win- 
dows now in Bolivia, with sighing 
senoritas behind the bars. In 
truth, I found that this old-time 
Spanish custom is fast disappearing 
all over South America. Roller 
skating and dancing were being en- 
joyed by the "men and maids" of 




A PRE-INCA STATUE. BOLIVIA. 




INDIAN WOMAN WEAVING PONCHO, BOLIVIA. 




AYMARA WOMEN LAUNDERING IN STREAM, BOLIVIA. 



1 88 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

La Paz when we were there. My secretary, who had led 
many a cotillion in Washington, tried to dance every number 
at one of the balls, but lost his heart to a beautiful maiden — 
a direct descendant of the Incas — or it may have been to the 
altitude, which is 12,500 feet. However, I think it was the 
soroche that captured him, for he usually got over any South 
American love affair in twenty-four hours, while this attack 
lasted six days. 

The street cars in La Paz stop running at seven p. m., 
and there are no theaters. The explanation of the latter con- 
dition is that singers and actors coming into this high alti- 
tude cannot "catch their breaths" long enough to sing or speak 
their lines properly. 

The flour used in Bolivia is Americano, and is of various 
brands, mostly from the Pacific Ocean States. The under- 
clothes of all but the wealthy class are made from the flour 
sacks, brand and all. Only the rich people wear shoes. A 





PANORAMIC VIEW OF LA PAZ, 



BOLIVIA 



189 



native who lives to be thirty-five or forty years of age is 
considered quite old, as exposure and drink age the people 
very rapidly. As mechanics, the men learn to do one thing 
and do it apparently well, but ■ from the time they are about 
thirty years of age the drink habit begins to degenerate large 
numbers of them, and like all alcoholized persons, they be- 
come inefficient. 

Living in La Paz is said to be more costly than in any 
other South American city. My investigations convinced me 
that here the expenses of life were not so very much below 
the high prices of North American cities. The only cheap 
commodity in La Paz is labor, which is surprising, in view of 
the cost of living. Common labor may be had at from thirty 
to sixty cents a day, while skilled laborers get from seventy- 
five cents to one dollar and fifty cents for a day's work. 

The houses have no chimneys, as they are never heated, 
and all the cooking is done outside. Coal costs forty dollars 




THE CAPITAL OF BOLIVIA. 



BOLIVIA 



191 



a ton retail in La Paz, and it is all brought from Australia. 
Needless to say, very little of it is used. The compost of the 
llama is mostly used for fuel, and one of the interesting 
sights of the city is to watch the long llama pack trains wind- 
ing their way into the town and through the streets, carrying 
loads of commodities from the surrounding country. 

The city of La Paz has a system of underground drain- 
age. The population is about 80,000. There are three dis- 
tinct classes of people in La Paz — the pure-blooded descen- 
dants of the Spaniards ; the Cholos, half Spanish and half 
Indian ; and the full-blooded Aymara Indians. The pure- 
blooded Bolivians of Spanish descent constitute the aristoc- 
racy of the country, and the women have pretty faces and 
big brown eyes. They dress much like the women of the 
United States, except when going to church, on which occa- 
sions they wear black clothes, and the faces are half hidden 
by the mantos draped about the head. The Cholos, the half- 
caste of Bolivia, are a hard-working, saving people. The 
Aymara Indians are short, stocky people, lazy, and in 
most part, unambitious. The men wear trousers split at the 
back up to the knee to give them greater freedom in walking 
up hill, and ponchos (brightly colored shawls through the 
middle of which the head is stuck) constitute their chief 
adornment. The poor Indian women wear a scanty skirt and 
dirty shawl, and often, peeking out from the inside of a sec- 
ond shawl swung over the shoulders, is the ruddy face of an 
Indian baby. The babies are strong and seldom if ever cry. 

The police in La Paz are a fine-looking lot of men, and 
during the night 
they blow their 
mournful whistles 
every half-hour to 
let the neighbor- 
hood know that all 
is well. In Con- 
stantinople the po- 
licemen beat on the 
sidewalk with their 
billies every half- 




OFFICERS ARRESTING INDIAN BOYS, LA PAZ. 



192 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



hour of the night for the same reason. There is no fire 
department in La Paz, as they almost never have a conflagra- 
tion. 

We received a visit, one afternoon, while I was writing, 
from the secret police of Bolivia. It seems that the chief of 
police and the Minister of War got the notion that we were 
spies. They had never before seen any one in the city taking 
photographs on such an extensive scale as we were doing — 
photographs of the President's palace, the city, the public 
buildings, the military barracks, and other objects of interest. 
Necessarily we had to quiet the fears of the officials by assur- 
ing them that we were 
just plain citizens of 
the United States, in- 
terested harmlessly in 
South American af- 
fairs. We found the 
photographing of the 
''lower orders" less 
easy than making pic- 
tures of the buildings. 
Whenever we aimed a 
camera at the Indians, 
they, in most cases, 
took to their heels, 
frightened by the 
amazing "guns" with 
which we "covered" 
them. 

The Bolivian gov- 
ernmental structure is much like that of Peru — a President, 
Vice-President, and upper and lower chamber of representa- 
tives. The currency of the country is on a gold basis, the 
legal unit of value being the silver boliviano of one hundred 
centavos, weighing twenty-five grams, equal to about forty 
cents in United States money. Bolivia is sound financially, 
and this is due in great part to the fact that it has no navy and 
only a small standing army to support. Until recently it had 
no debt, but now it has a small one, owing to investment in 




AVMARA INDIANS, BOLIVIA. 



BOLIVIA 



193 



railroad building. However, this debt is well within the limits 
of the country's resources. 

The total amount of foreign trade in 1910 aggregated 
$37,477,500, and of this amount $14,775,976 were imports and 
$22,701,524 were exports, showing a good balance of trade 
in favor of the republic. Bolivia depends mostly upon her 
mineral wealth, which is widely distributed and very rich. Its 
copper, tin and bismuth mines are among the richest in the 
world, while it has given to man's uses more silver than any 
other country. The principal silver mines are near Potosi, 
and these mines have yielded, since the middle of the sixteenth 
century, silver in excess of $1,500,000,000. Tin is a very im- 
portant product, and a legitimate get-rich-quick article to the 
lucky finder, as an instance of which I may cite the case of 
a native who had been working for twenty-five dollars a 
month, but who not long since discovered a great tin mine 
and is now exporting $300,000 worth of tin a month. 

Rubber is also an important export of the country, and 





A CORRAL FILLED WITH LLAMAS, BOLIVIA. 



13 



194 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




A STREET IN LA PAZ. 



like many other exports from Bolivia, is credited to a neigh- 
boring republic. Bolivian rubber, which goes down the Ama- 
zon to Para, and is shipped thence to the United States, is 
practically all credited to the production of Brazil. 

Three-quarters of the fertile land in Bolivia is unculti- 
vated. The eastern portion of the country is particularly rich, 
and land may be bought from the Government in this section 
for four cents an acre. The most primitive methods are em- 
ployed in cultivation, and the natives often steal the plates 
that connect the rails on the railroad and from these they 
make plowshares. A large area of the republic i-s suited to 
the growing of wheat, but as yet this branch of agriculture 
has been given little attention. Cattle, sheep, and llamas are 
numerous, and rice, coffee and cacao are grown in large 
quantities. The vast forests of Bolivia are full of sarsapa- 



BOLIVIA 



195 



rilla, cinnamon, camphor, vanilla, dyewood, mahogany, ebony, 
rosewood, satinwood, cedar and cinchona (quinine) trees. 

The city of Sucre, near the Cachamayo River, is the sec- 
ond city of importance in Bolivia. It is still nominally the 
capital of the country, and the Supreme Court holds its ses- 
sions there, but as the President is in La Paz, and the Con- 
gress assembles there, and the foreign representatives, also, 
it is really the capital. Sucre has a lovely climate, being only 
8,860 feet above the sea. It is like spring there the year 
around, and the wonder is that people should prefer cold La 
Paz to it, particularly as the dwellings in Sucre are finer than 
those of La Paz and its people are highly educated. 

Cochabamba, two hundred and seventy-nine miles by road 
from La Paz, is the principal agricultural city of Bolivia, be- 
ing situated on a well-cultivated and fertile plain 7,244 feet 
above sea level. Manufacturing interests are represented in 
Bolivia by soap and starch 
works, tanneries, breweries, 
potteries and cotton and 
wool spinning establish- 
ments. 

The United States min- 
ister arranged for myself 
and secretary to meet the 
President of Bolivia, Sefior 
Elidoro Villazon, and his 
Secretary of State. We had 
an hour's talk with the Pres- 
ident whom we found to be 
a very amiable and well- 
informed gentleman, very 
much interested in the prog- 
ress of his country. 

The United States Min- 
ister to Bolivia is the Honor- 
able Horace G. Knowles, of 
Delaware, who represented 
Uncle Sam in the Balkans 
during the Turkish rebellion. 

SOLDIER ON GUARD AT PRESIDENT'S 
PALACE. 




196 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



He is one of the most cultured and intellectual men in our 
diplomatic service, and has made an enviable record in han- 
dling our country's affairs with other nations. Mr. and Mrs. 
Knowles stand first in diplomatic circles in Bolivia, and Mr. 
Knowles' reception by the Bolivian Government was the most 
elaborate and hospitable ever given a representative of a 
foreign country. His presentation address referred to the 
Monroe Doctrine, and he placed that important policy before 
Bolivia, and all South America, in its right light. He has 
been quoted as an authority on the interpretation of the Mon- 
roe Doctrine in all the South American papers. We are 
proud of him because he formerly was a newspaper man, and 
is a broad-minded, capable official in the right place — but 
decidedly underpaid. 

A serious question is : 
How long can the United 
States employ such able 
men as Mr. Knowles, and 
other gentlemen of his 
class, in the diplomatic 
service at "starvation 
wages" ? An American 
away from the United 
States should feel perfectly 
free to go to his represen- 
tative for information and 
aid, and feel that his coun- 
try is paying for it. But 
when one knows that Uncle 
Sam is paying our diplo- 
matic representatives what, 
in most cases, is hardly 
equal to decent house rent, 
one feels that any call upon 
their services is an imposi- 
tion. 

There are millions of 
dollars of American capital 
invested in Bolivia and 




MOVING DAY IN LA PAZ. 



BOLIVIA 



197 





VIEW IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF LA PAZ. 



other countries of South America, and there are questions 
arising every day that require diplomacy in their adjudication, 
for a most trivial matter, if not settled amicably, may cause 
our United States investors heavy financial loss. The people 
of foreign countries must, to a certain extent, judge the 
United States by the appearance we present in comparison 
with other nations. We are supposedly the wealthiest nation 
in the world, but our standing is humiliatingly poor abroad, 
and what standing we have is gained by our wealthy, patriotic 
representatives going down into their own pockets to maintain 
it. Hence I am an ardent advocate of larger remuneration 
for our foreign representatives, and ampler and better con- 
ditions for them in every way. 

In the main, what put Bolivia prominently before the 
world was the building of three railroads from three ports 
on the Pacific, and a contract to connect with a rail head in 
Argentina, which will open the inland capital and republic to 



198 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



the Atlantic Ocean, two 
thousand miles away by 
rail. All of these roads 
are aided by the Bolivian 
Government, either by 
guarantee of bond or 
cash subsidy and large 
land grants. Bolivia 
now has within her 
borders over four hun- 
dred miles of railroad in 
operation, and over four 
hundred miles in course 
of construction. A few 
years ago there was not 
a mile of railroad in the 
country. 

The first Bolivian rail- 
way was built from La 
Paz to Lake Titicaca by 
the Government and was 
sold to the Peruvian 
Corp oration, which 
owned the boats on the 
-four steamers of from four hundred to fifteen hundred 




LLAMAS AND STREET IN LA PAZ. 



lake- 
tons. 

La Paz has always been referred to as the most inaccessi- 
ble city in the world, with the possible exception of the For- 
bidden City of Thibet, China. Fifteen years ago an English 
engineer, after wandering around South America for several 
years in the employ of a French company, landed in La Paz, 
and stayed there. He has done for La Paz and Bolivia what 
Henry Meiggs, an American, did for Peru. I refer to Mr. J. 
Pierce Hope. He was employed by the Bolivian Government, 
and put in charge of the public works, and now La Paz is 
one of the best built and most sanitary cities in South Amer- 
ica, and is connected, in all directions, with the outside world. 

Relative to the three railroads connecting with the Pacific, 
the first is the Mollendo-La Paz route, via Lake Titicaca, which 



BOLIVIA 



199 



is six hundred miles in length. The second is from Antof agasta 
to La Paz, seven hundred miles, all rail. The third is the 
Arica-La Paz, four hundred miles in length, which will soon 
be completed. This last route has the disadvantage of thirty- 
miles of "cog" road over a mountain pass sixteen thousand 
feet high, and will be very expensive to operate. 

The Government of Bolivia released to Brazil, for $10,000,- 
000, a strip of territory next to that country, and this money 
is being invested in helping to build a railroad around the 
Madeira Rapids, to open an outlet by way of the Amazon 
River to the Atlantic Ocean. This great project I will take 
up more fully in a later chapter. No country anywhere is at 
present doing more to "be on the map" than Bolivia, and with 
her great area and great variety of products, she must be 
reckoned with very seriously in the future. Thirty years ago 
Bolivia was "not on the map." It happened this way : The 
English minister demanded an apology from the President of 




200 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Bolivia for what he considered an insult to himself and family, 
but the only answer he got was his "papers" and an escort to 
the boundary line. The jolt to his pride, and the discourtesy 
to his country was more than he could stand quietly, so he 
expressed himself very emphatically to the officer in charge of 
the guard, who proceeded to impose new and additional dis- 
grace by placing the minister on a mule, with his face toward 
the mule's tail, and 
in that way es- 
corted him through 
the streets of La 
Paz. The British 
Govern raent de- 
cided that Bolivia 
was beneath her 
notice, and no de- 
mand was made 
for an apology or 
satisfaction of any 
kind. All that 
Great Britain did 
was to paint out 
the Republic of 
Bolivia on the map 
of South America, 
and when request- 
ed to send another 
minister or diplo- 
matic representa- 
tive replied : "We 
find no such coun- 
try as Bolivia on 
our map." The 
United States min- 
i s t e r represented 
the British subjects 
in Bolivia for a 
number of years, 
and it was only re- 




INDIAN FAMILY S HOME IN A RUIN OF 
THE "OLDEST CITY." 



BOLIVIA 201 

cently — since English capital has been invested largely in 
railroads and Bolivian bonds — that the English Government 
has sent a representative to this republic. 

Toward Bolivia every citizen of the United States ought 
to entertain a sort of "close to home" feeling, on account of 
it being the only country in South America named after 
Simon Bolivar, who had many of the qualities of our own 
George Washington. The ambition of Bolivar was to liberate 
all the countries in South America from Spain and form them 
into one grand republic. Had he succeeded, the United States 
would have had a most formidable competitor. There is little 
doubt but that South America, in every way equal if not 
superior to North America in climate, products and extent of 
territory, would have received much of the European immi- 
gration that has entered the United States, and the great 
North American republic would, possibly, be occupying the 
second instead of the first place in the Western Hemisphere. 



CHILE 

Area, 307,620 square miles, approximately the size of the States 
of Texas and Virginia combined — Population 4,000,000, in- 
cluding some 50,000 Indians — Chief resources, nitrate, sil- 
ver, copper, wool, hides, agriculture — Total exports (ipio) 
§I20,02I,oig; imports $108,582,270. Exports to the United 
States (ion), $10,941,000; imports from United States 
$12,044,578 — Capital, Santiago, population 400,000 — Na- 
tional debt $125,000,000. Standing army 17,500; all phys- 
ically capable males from 18 to 45 years of age liable to 
service in time of war — Navy, 7,000 officers and men, 
eighth in strength of the world's navies. 



CHAPTER XL 

SCENES IN NORTHERN CHILE. 

ONE thing I hold against whisky is that it makes some men 
imagine that they can sing. One unfortunate thing about 
visiting strange countries is that it makes the traveler want to 
write. In both cases the performer "afflicts" his friends and 
the public because of "inspiration," but there is a difference in 
the character of the stimulant. The man who looks upon 
towering mountain ranges and is stirred to lofty thoughts, who 
sees in strange human faces the inherited marks of old historic 
struggles, who stands in wonder before the works of hands that 
have been dust for ages, is likely, I believe, to be a better man 
afterward. With the drinking of whisky it is not so ; there 
the parallel ends. 

Chile, by reason of its odd topography and the romance of 

its history, attracts the 
traveler strongly. Once 
within its borders, the 
investigator begins to 
find interesting objects 
and phases on every 
Ifff hand. I entered the 

country near the north 




OLD-FASHIONED STREET CAR IN 
COQUIMBO, CHILE. 

202 



CHILE 203 

end of it, and at once anticipation was awakened by two things 
— the nitrate fields, in battling for which thousands of human 
lives were lost, and the surprising thinness and still more sur- 
prising length of the country we were to traverse in our journey 
toward the south. Chile is less than one hundred miles in width, 
on an average, but is twenty-seven hundred miles in length. 
Fancy a nation bound to a strip of territory from sixty to one 
hundred and fifty miles wide. and extending from New York 
to eastern California and you have it. The unusual always 
provokes curiosity, and such a country as Chile, and the people 
that inhabit it, can hardly fail to hold the traveler's close atten- 
tion. 

To George Smith, a Scotchman, the Republic of Chile is 
indebted for a discovery that has brought it great wealth, for it 
was he who accidentally stumbled upon the fact that nitrate, or 
saltpeter, is an excellent fertilizer. Smith at the time was 
living in the village of Pica, near where the city of Iquique 
now stands, and he had a small garden of fruit and flowers 
which he cultivated. 

One day he observed that the trees and plants which were 
banked up with soil containing a strange white substance, flour- 
ished more than others. Being of an inquiring disposition. 
Smith's observation led him to make numerous experiments 
with such success that his brother-in-law, who was in the 
canned fruit business, took a few bags of the white substance 
to England to give to the farmers, from whom he bought his 
fruit, that they might try it in their orchards. This was the 
beginning of an industry that has grown to enormous propor- 
tions. 

At present the nitrate industry of Chile, which gives employ- 
ment to about fifty thousand men, and pays the Government 
$37,500,000 annually in export taxes, is practically the basis of 
all business transacted in the northern part of the republic. 
Tramp steamers, colliers and sailboats alike, discharge their 
varied cargoes from the different parts of the world in Chilean 
harbors, and then wend their way back to European and Amer- 
ican ports, loaded to the gunwales with nitrate. 

And what is nitrate? Simply sodium nitrate, commonly 
known as saltpeter. It had been known to chemists before 



204 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Smith's discovery, and had been used in the manufacture of 
powder; but now, in addition to being used in large amounts 
for the manufacture of gunpowder, it is the most extensive 
fertilizer used. The product as shipped is about 95 per cent 
pure, but it passes through several processes before being 
ready for shipment. 

The crude material, locally known as caliche, is found on 
the pampas or arid plains as a subsoil, vast in area, and varying 
from a few inches to several feet in thickness. It is a crystal- 
line mass containing sodium nitrate, sodium chloride and 
various potassium salts, but the caliche that is commercially 
workable usually carries from 15 to 23 per cent of sodium 
nitrate. The Chilean laborers — for up to date no foreign 
laborers have been admitted to the pampas — mine the caliche 
by contract, the usual proceeding being to drill a hole about 
six inches in diameter to the bottom of the caliche and then 
loosen up a certain area with a charge of blasting powder, 
which is manufactured on the ground. 

The caliche is then loaded into small steel dump cars and 
drawn by narrow-gauge engines to the works, where it is 
dumped upon the crusher floor. Here it is fed to huge oscillat- 
ing jaw-crushers which break the material to about the size of 
a man's fist. From the crushers the product is raised, either in 
cars, or by means of endless conveyor belts, to the tank floor, 
where it is dumped into large steel tanks having a 

capacity of seventy tons H each. These tanks are 
lined with steam pipes, and when a tank has been filled 

with the crushed caliche, water is turned in upon the 

mass and steam is sent through the pipes until the 





NITRATE WORKS OR OFICINA, NORTHERN CHILE. 



CHILE 205 

solution boils violently. After about four hours of boiling, 
the solution, which is now partially saturated with dissolved 
sodium nitrate, is drawn off and the process repeated with 
water less rich with nitrate, until the maximum amount of 
saltpeter has been extracted. 

The now saturated solution is turned into shallow steel 
tanks where the action of the extremely dry air and wind soon 
tend to evaporate the water, the pure nitrate of sodium precipi- 
tating in the form of beautiful white crystals — the saltpeter of 
commerce. The crystallizing process usually requires from 
seven to ten days, the product then being sacked and shipped 
to the coast for export. 

Since caliche contains appreciable amounts of potassium 
iodine, some of the works, or oficinas, as they are locally 
known, make iodine as a by-product, so that today Chile con- 
trols the market of this valuable chemical. Today the Chilean 
nitrate industry is practically in the hands of English, German 
and local capitalists, who have formed a trust to limit the prod- 
uct and fix the price. Recently, however, a large United States 
powder manufacturing concern, which has been in the habit of 
buying its nitrate in the open market for many years, has ac- 
quired nitrate grounds, and will probably commence manufac- 
turing on a large scale in the near future. 

There are, of course, various sized oficinas, but one of aver- 
age capacity will turn out about 120,000 Spanish quintals (a 
quintal equals 100 pounds) of nitrate per month. The cost of 
production naturally varies with the conditions, but it is usually 
conceded that a well-managed plant is able to place its product 
aboard ship in either Iquique or Antofagasta harbors for about 
five shillings ($1.20 United States money) per 100 pounds — 
this cost including the export tax of 70 cents per quintal levied 
by the Chilean Government. Since the present price paid by 
buyers is seven shillings ($1.68) per quintal, which for an 
oficina producing 12,000,000 pounds per month means a profit 
of about $690,000 per year, or over 50 per cent profit — the 
cost of a complete plant, which is about $1,250,000, is not a 
bad investment. 

In the past few years several "scares" have been started in 
Chile relative to the possibility of producing cheap artificial 



206 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



nitrates from the air by electrolysis in Norway, where enor- 
mous water-power plants are used for the purpose. However, 
up to date the process has not seriously affected the price of the 
Chilean product, and England, Germany and the United States, 
the three chief consumers, will probably continue to draw their 
supplies "of the fertilizer from Chile for many years to come, 
especially since it is estimated, and has been officially reported 
by the United States Government officials, that known deposits 
will last for another century. A recent quarterly circular of 
the Nitrate Propaganda Association states that a reliable 
estimate places the remaining nitrate of the northern Chilean 
fields at 5,408,204,000 quintals, enough to rejuvenate old 
Mother Earth for over another hundred years. 

The northern coast of Chile is dry, tropical in climate, bare 
of vegetation, thinly populated, but rich in minerals, while the 
air of the coast towns reeks with the smell of saltpeter — Na- 
ture's chief gift to this part of the country. 

Arica, in the province of Tacna, is the most northerly port 
in Chile. It is connected with the city of Tacna by a railway 
thirty-eight miles long, and it is the terminal of a burro road 
built by the Incas, connecting the port with La Paz, Bolivia, the 







CLIFF OF THE MORRO FORTRESS, ARICA, CHILE. 



CHILE 207 

road being in constant use today. Rising some eight hundred 
feet to the southwest of the harbor is a fortified hill called El 
Morro. On this precipitous headland a life-and-death struggle, 
one of the most savage in the history of South American war- 
fare, took place during the war between Chile and Peru, in 
which the latter were allied with Bolivia. The Peruvians and 
Bolivians mustered at Tacna and Arica numbered 6,000 and 
4,000 respectively; they were poorly armed and practically 
without ammunition. The Chileans numbered 14,000, part of 
which was cavalry, and they were well armed. The opposing 
armies met outside Tacna and a terrible battle began. It lasted 
two hours and the slaughter was appalling, the Bolivians being 
forced to retreat up the valley of Tacna, over the Andean passes, 
into Bolivia. Over one-fourth of the men engaged in this 
battle were killed or wounded, the desperate struggle terminat- 
ing at El Morro, overtopping Arica. 

The Chilean commander invited the surrender of Arica 
under a flag of truce, but the brave Bolognesi, the Peruvian 
commander, refused. At daybreak one morning the Chilean 
army began the storming of the fortified hill. The outworks 
were carried by surprise and a hand-to-hand struggle ensued 
on top of El Morro. The Chileans overpowered their enemies 
and the fortress was taken. 

I saw tears in the eyes of my Peruvian photographer as he 
looked long and tenderly at the historic hill. 

"What is the matter, George ?" I asked. 

"Ah !" he said, "that is a sacred spot to Peru and to me ; my 
grandfather, General Bolognesi, died there!" 

Arica has been destroyed by earthquake several times, and 
in 1868 it was almost washed away by a tidal wave that swept 
in from the ocean without warning. Tourists from the United 
States are particularly interested in the history of this disaster, 
as two United States warships, the Fredonia and Wateree, 
were lying in the harbor at the time. 

A wave sixty feet high rolled in from the sea, lifted them 
from their moorings, and literally swept them over the roofs of 
the city. The Fredonia was completely destroyed, and every 
one on board was lost ; the Wateree was left lying on a level 
keel in the sand, and there she has remained ever since. About 



CHILE 209 

half the officers and crew of the Wateree, who were between 
decks, survived the deluge and escaped when the water receded. 

Iquique, capital of the province of Tarapaca, is the largest 
nitrate port in the world, and its volume of exports is greater 
than any other Chilean port. It has one of the safest harbors 
of northern Chile, being protected by surrounding rocks and a 
breakwater. The city, which has a population of about 50,000 
inhabitants, is modern in most respects, having tramways, elec- 
tric lights, telephones, manufacturing plants, and wide streets 
which are, in most part, well paved. 

Not far from the city are the rich silver mines of Huan- 
tayaja, which have yielded the huge sum of $350,000,000 since 
their discovery, many years ago. All the coast towns of north- 
ern Chile present an aspect of prosperity, and if we had not 
visited the rich nitrate fields we would have marveled how such 
a narrow, dry, desert country could possess the wealth that 
here abounds on every hand. 

Antofagasta, which lies at sea level and has a population of 
about 17,000, is the principal Chilean port between Iquique and 
Valparaiso, and is also the principal import and export point in 
Chile for trade of the isolated republic of Bolivia, to which 
country it once belonged. There are no docks here, and the 
loading and unloading of ships is accomplished with lighters. 
There is a railroad from Antofagasta to La Paz, the capital of 
Bolivia, and although the greater number of locomotives used 
on this line are English, they have to depend upon American- 
built engines to pull the trains up the steep grades. 

If you ever visit Valparaiso, I would advice you not to arrive 
there in carnival time, as I did, else you will find all business 
suspended, the custom house officials amusing themselves 
throwing colored paper at pretty girls, and only the porters 
willing to work, and they for a holiday price. 

Valparaiso is the principal Chilean port, and the capital of 
the province of Valparaiso. It is situated midway between 
the northern and southern extremities of Chile, and is con- 
nected by rail with Santiago, the capital of Chile. There are 
no docks or wharfs at which large boats can land, and all com- 
merce between the city and ships is carried on by means of 
lighters. It is one of the least secure of the West Coast harbors, 
14 



2io ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




THE GUAYACAN MINES, CHILE, 

as the bay opens to the north, and when the "northers" come 
the surf dashes over the sea wall and more or less damage is 
done. 

The city, which has a population of about 200,000, is built 
upon nineteen hills, ranging from three hundred to eleven hun- 
dred feet in height, in many cases being separated by deep 
gullies, through which flow narrow streams of water. In the 
level part of the city the streets are generally straight, but 
the hill streets are reached by winding roads, stairways and 
inclined tramways. The tramway system is owned by a Ger- 
man syndicate, and the cars are double-decked. First-class 
passengers ride inside, while second-class passengers climb up 
a winding stair to seats on the top, and, in my opinion, have 
the best of it, in addition to paying only half fare, or two and 
one-half cents. 

The conductors are, in most part, women. It seems that 
during the war with Peru and Bolivia so many men were absent 
as soldiers, that the mule car line employed women as con- 
ductors. They proved to be so much more honest and efficient 
than men that they were continued in service after the war, and 
when the electric lines were built by German capital they were 
again employed. 

This choice between the sexes at once presents to the mind 
the perplexing question of which is really superior, the human 
male or female. I shall not permit myself to discuss this dan- 




rOGRAPHED FROM THE DECK OF STEAMER. 



gerous topic, more than to mention a brief verbal encounter be- 
tween a man and woman, which, I am told, recently took place. 
The two persons had become slightly heated in the argument, 
when the man asked : 

"Why do you consider women superior to men in intelli- 
gence, madam?" 

"Well, a bald-headed man buys hair restorer by the quart, 
doesn't he?" asked the woman. 

"Er — yes," assented the man. 

"Well, a woman doesn't waste time on hair restorers; she 
simply buys hair," replied the woman. Floored, the man went 
out, it is said, and butted his bald head against a stone wall. 

The city of Valparaiso has progressed, notwithstanding the 
terrible misfortunes that have overtaken it. Founded in 1536 
it was captured and sacked by Drake forty-two years later; 
again, some eighteen years afterward, by Hawkins, the bucca- 
neer ; then Van Noort, the Dutch pirate, took his turn and plun- 
dered the town. It was destroyed by fire in 1858 and bombarded 
by the Spaniards in 1866, but the worst calamity that befell it 
was in 1906, when one evening, after a day of unusual calm, 
there was a sudden shock of the earth, followed by another, and 
the entire city seemed to swing back and forth ; then there was a 
terrible jolt, as if all the pent-up subterranean energies of the 
earth were trying to break forth at one point, and whole rows 
of buildings fell with a roaring crash. The gas and water 




VIEW OF THE HARBOR OF VALPARAIS 




A NEAR VIEW OF THE WATER-FRO? 




PRINCIPAL PORT OF CHILE. 




ALPARAISO, CHILE. 



214 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



mains and electric light wires were snapped, and the city was in 
darkness. A few moments of terror ensued, then the darkness 
was dispelled by numerous fires that sprang up here and there 
— funeral pyres to hundreds, torches to guide others who fled 
from the stricken city as it was swept by a great storm. 

It is said that through the earthquake and fire ninety per 
cent of the houses were destroyed, and amid the havoc troops 
and citizens stood guard and shot down the human vultures that 
sought personal gain from the great disaster. The railways were 
wrecked for miles and telegraph lines were broken everywhere. 
The condition of the people for a few days was indescribable, 
over 60,000 being camped on the barren hills above the town 
without food or adequate clothing. The exact number of fatali- 
ties was never definitely known, but it is estimated that from 
500 to 1,000 persons perished and over 1,000 were injured ; the 
damage to property and business amounted to about $100,- 
000,000. 

Despite its continued calamities Valparaiso (the name means 
Vale of Paradise) has been rebuilt and is today an enterprising 
commercial city with modern improvements, and is growing 
each year. It has a reservoir near the city limits where water 
enough can be stored to last three years. 




TYPE OF ARCHITECTURE IN VALPARAISO, CHILE. 



CHILE 



215 



The island of Juan Fer- 
nandez, made famous as the 
long-abiding place of Robin- 
son Crusoe and his black 
man Friday, lies off the 
western coast of Chile, and 
is today the seat of the lob- 
ster canning industry. If 
Robinson Crusoe had no 
difficulty in digesting lob- 
sters I do not wonder that 
he stayed so long on his is- 
land home. I had a lobster 
from Crusoe's famous is- 
land, and it was the finest I 
have ever eaten. It was 
about three times the size of 
the lobsters we have in the 
United States. When I say 
I had one, I mean I ate a 
portion of one, as half a 

single lobster was served for three and each of us had all we 
desired. 




A BREAD MAN, VALPARAISO, 
CHILE. 




TWO-DECKED STREET CARS, VALPARAISO, CHILE. 



216 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

The steamers which visit Chile are for the most part British, 
211 flying that flag having registered in and out in a given time ; 
German, 90 ; Chilean, 55 ; French, 7 ; Belgian, 2 ; Argentinian, 2 ; 
Danish, 2; Dutch, 1; United States, 1. Only one from the 
United States ! Think of that ! And the United States is 
spending; or will spend, the better part of one billion dollars for 
the Panama ship canal ! 



CHAPTER XII. 

SANTIAGO AND CENTRAL CHILE. 

REGARDED with a free fancy, Chile and the Andes Moun- 
tains, when looked at upon the map, somewhat resemble 
an elongated centipede and a yellow ribbon lying side by side. If 
you look closely you will see that the very elongated centipede 
has several thousands of its feet planted on the ribbon along 
the west side, and several thousands of its feet resting on Ar- 
gentina and Bolivia on the east. Continuing the simile, one 
sees that the centipede extends so far southward that its tail 
is lost in the ocean near the Antarctic region, and that it keeps 
its feet on the yellow ribbon until that, too, sinks into the Cold 
Ocean. That is why Chile has been called the "Tapeline Re- 
public" by some, and by others the "Populated Sliver." 

The products of Chile are just as diversified as is indicated 
by her longitudinal extremes — from 17 to 58 degrees south 
latitude, or, to be a little plainer, from the southern boundary of 
Peru to Cape Horn, which projects out into the Antarctic 
Ocean. 

Chile should really be divided into three parts — Northern, 
Central and Southern. When old Mother Earth gave birth to 
South America she put up a great wall on the western side in 
the shape of the Andes Mountains to keep back the ocean, and 
placed her front yard of broad acres to the east of this barrier, 
where there was rain in abundance, and where the warmth of 
the sun coaxed the buds forth to drink in its glory. But her 
children wanted to play in the "back yard" ; they didn't want to 
be dressed up all the time ; they wanted to sleep in the morning 
and play in the afternoon when the shadows of the western sun 
began to lengthen. So good old Mother Earth heaved up the 
bottom of the Pacific Ocean to the west of the mountain wall 
she had built, and told her children they might play at "keeping 
house" in the newly-made "back yard." 

217 



211 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Of course the children were pleased for a while, but soon 
began to want many things. Some wanted it warm, some cold, 
some wet, some dry ; some wanted to hunt, others to fish ; some 
wanted to mine, others to farm ; some wanted to raise grain, 
fruits and grapes; others wanted to raise cattle, sheep and 
horses ; but most of them only wanted to raise a fuss. So old 
Mother Earth let them all have their own way, and provided 
them all with the opportunity to have it. She put up the very 
highest mountains, one about 24,000 feet high, to keep off the 
wind and rain from the east, and in the north, between these 
very high mountains and the ocean, she placed only dry sands. 
Here the "playing" is good, but the living is poor, as they could 
not have dry, pleasant weather all the time and also fruits, grain 
and flowers. But Mother Earth knew her children would not be 
satisfied to play all the time, so in the dry, sandy places she 
deposited nitrate to fertilize the world, and up in the mountains 
she placed copper and rich deposits of silver. She made little 
rivers by melting the snow on top of the high mountains, and 
these small streams flowed down through the sandy soil ; and 
her children "played" at digging ditches, and, turning the water 




A GENERAL VIEW OF SANTIAGO, 



CHILE 



219 



on the queer "soil," they raised all sorts of delicious things to 
eat. It sounds somewhat like a fairy story, but it is true, and 
it proves how very thoughtful and kind is Mother Earth. 

In North America we have cold in the North and warmth in 
the South. In Chile it is just the reverse — hot in the North 
and cold in the South. In the warm, balmy air of the North 
the Chilean children played and slept and grew lazy and weak. 
Away up in the high mountains of Peru, where it was cold, 
there lived another family of Mother Earth's children who had 
to "hustle" to keep warm and get something to eat. These were 
called the Inca Indians, and they were stronger and braver than 
the lazy Indians in northern Chile, where the land was low and 
the weather hot all the time ; so the latter were conquered by 
the Incas. But the Spanish had to retake the northern part of 
Chile, and as it was difficult to support an army in this desert 
country, the white men had no easy task. However, in the 
course of time the northern Chileans were again subdued and 
were ready to do whatever the Spanish bade them. They soon 
began to intermarry with the Spanish, and a new half-breed 
race, called rotos, sprang up. They were not much better 




E BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL OF CHILE. 



220 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

than the Indians, both the rotos and Indians of northern Chile 
being a lazy, drunken lot, which they are today. There are 
now many white people in the northern country, brought there 
by the lure of gain from nitrate and the silver and copper 
mines. They are a hard-working, hard-drinking people who 
soon wear out. Sanitary conditions are not modern in that 
region, water is scarce and nearly all food is imported. 

From Valparaiso, the chief port, there is not much moisture 
for seventy-five miles southeast, at which point one enters the 
north end of the great Central Valley, which extends, south 
for about six hundred miles. This valley averages about fifty 
miles in width, but as Chile is only ninety miles wide, on an 
average, the valley is pretty large in comparison, and it is not 
only the valley, but the "backbone" of all Chile. Without this 
valley Chile would be the poorest country in South America ; 
with it, she is the richest for her size, for here we find growing 
every product of the soil that we produce in the United States. 

The Government has built a railroad through the center of 
this valley from north to south, with branch lines running east 
to the mines in the mountains and west to many fine harbors 
on the Pacific Ocean. It already has built two thousand miles 
of railroad and is building two thousand miles more, a portion 
of which extends into the north over the sandy desert country 
to new mines already opened and others under development. 
The entire national debt of $125,000,000 is due to investments 
in railroads. 

The agricultural portion of this great Central Valley, which 
embraces nearly all of it, is divided into large farms, or 
haciendas, as they are called in Spanish, on which the owner 
lives when he is not in his town house in Santiago, or traveling 
in Europe. For some years there was considerable immigra- 
tion from Germany, but now there are no farm immigrants 
coming to Chile. The oldest and best portions of the land are 
occupied by the rich "big farmers," who never sell any of their 
possessions, and the only way the farms are ever broken up is 
by division among children, who even when married continue 
to live under one roof with their parents and families. 

Nonresidents may own land in Chile, and it is possible for 
a corporation to own real estate, but there is a growing senti- 




THE AMERICAN LEGATION BUILDING, SANTIAGO, CHILE. 



222 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

ment against this form of controlling the source from which 
comes the food necessary to sustain life, as it would be an easy 
matter for one or a number of corporations to monopolize the 
agricultural products. 

The system of labor in vogue is largely the "tenant plan," 
each tenant having a house in which to live and a fixed quan- 
tity of land to work, giving his labor, or the labor of one man, 
to the owner of the land as the price of rent, his family work- 
ing the place he rents in case he gives his own labor to his 
landlord. This system, apparently, works well in Chile and is 
deeply rooted as a custom of the country. 

The owner of the land, however, has much more authority 
over his tenant than obtains in the United States. He is 
usually the local magistrate, and does not hesitate to adjudicate 
cases in which he is personally interested. He also runs a 
store to supply his tenants with necessary articles, and as credit 
is easily obtained, the tenant is seldom free from debt. 

Through a large part of the Central Valley the rains are 
helped out by irrigation, hence crops are much surer than if 
entire dependence was placed on the bounty of the elements. 
It is a mistake to think of Chile as a cattle country, for it is not. 
Most of the cattle marketed here are brought from Argentina, 
as is the case with horses, sheep and swine. Pasturage is too 
scarce, when the value of grains, fruits and vegetables, im- 
mense quantities of which can be raised from one acre, is taken 
into consideration. The fruits here were the finest I had ever 
eaten in any part of the world, and the size and flavor could 
not be improved upon. There were several varieties of peaches 
and melons that I had never before seen. Grapes do exceed- 
ingly well, and the flavor equals the finest French and German 
varieties. There are many vineyards and exceedingly good 
wine is made, much of which is exported. 

Soil and climate alone cannot make a rich country — it also 
requires energetic, industrious people. Let us for a moment 
consider the people of Chile, to better understand the results 
they have achieved. At the outset we have to acknowledge 
that the Chileans are a vigorous, pushing people. In such 
cases there is always "a reason." An anecdote will serve to 
illustrate. 



CHILE 



223 




THE PRESIDENT S PALACE, SANTIAGO, CHILE. 



One quiet, warm summer afternoon, a minister, in a church 
at the edge of a town, was trying to keep one portion of his 
congregation awake and the other from looking out of the 
windows at a baseball game that was being played on grounds 
in full view of the church. He was pounding the pulpit and 
speaking at the top of his voice, demanding to know, in the 
language of his text : "What shall we do to be saved?" Paus- 
ing an instant for oratorical effect, there came wafting through 
the windows from the baseball diamond, the clear, shrill com- 
mand of an excited player, "Slide for it ! Slide for it !" 

For the last three hundred years in Chile there has been 
some vigorous "sliding" done. It has produced a race of men 
and women who are perfectly competent to take care of them- 
selves and their country, and who have developed a nationality 
of their own. 



224 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



From my own personal point of view I cannot agree with 
them in everything. They picked a brutal quarrel with Bolivia 
and Peru and took away the most valuable territory of those 
two countries — the nitrate fields. They might possibly have 
been excusable on the basis of an old disputed boundary line, 
and the fact that Peru joined forces with Bolivia in a quarrel 
that was not hers, but the world will long find it difficult, to 
excuse the atrocities and destruction, worthy of an age past 
and gone, that were committed during the occupancy of Lima 
by the Chilean army after the war was over. 

The foreign capital invested in Chile is largely English, 
with that of Germany next. The country has been settled, 
first by Spaniards, second by Italians, third by Germans, and 
fourth by English and Irish. There are about one hundred 
old families, many of them bearing pure Irish and English 
names, now hyphenated with Spanish prefixes or suffixes. The 
"one hundred family" control of governmental affairs is fast 
disappearing. One-half of the members of the Senate and 
Congress of Chile today are from the educated element of the 
new generation, which cannot boast of belonging to the "one 
hundred." Education is fostered in every way, the right to 
vote being founded entirely on this basis, and as a consequence 
the politicians run night schools just before important elections. 

Morally, Chile has much to accomplish. It is said that 
there are more illegitimate children born here than in any other 
country in South America, except Paraguay, although there 







THE ARTILLERY BARRACKS, SANTIAGO, CHILE. 



CHILE 



225 




MUNICIPAL THEATER, SANTIAGO, CHILE. 



are no statistics on the question. The mortality among all 
classes and ages is very great, owing to the insanitary and un- 
clean manner in which many of the people live, and the 
prevalent drunkenness which reduces their vitality. This condi- 
tion, however, is disappearing, especially in the big cities like 
Santiago and Valparaiso, and all over the country temperance 
societies are being established and promoted by the church and 
best citizens. 

The Chileans are great lovers of amusement, and as the 
constitution forbids bull-fighting and there are no lotteries, they 
find other means of recreation. Horse-racing is their chief 
gambling amusement, and football (Rugby style) the national 
game. There are many fine horses in the country and every- 
body rides horseback. They are fond of music and dancing, 
have beautiful parks and plazas in every town and city, 
and the people spend much time out of doors. 

The State church is, of course, the Catholic, which receives 
about $500,000 (gold) a year from the Government, and is 

15 



CHILE 



227 



very rich. There is 
a gradual separa- 
tion going on be- 
tween the Church 
and State, and it is 
only a matter of 
time when they 
will be entirely 
separated, as in 
.North America and 
most Eur opean 
countries. 

The Panama Ca- 
nal will not, I be- 
lieve, benefit Chile 

much, nor hurt it. It will shorten the distance between Chile 
and the United States and Europe by water and save time for 
passengers, but if the canal toll is put at one dollar a ton, it 
will be cheaper for all freight to go from Chile around by the 
Straits of Magellan. 




TYPE OF PRIVATE RESIDENCE, SANTIAGO, 
CHILE. 




A QUIET RESIDENCE STREET, SANTIAGO, CHILE. 



CHILE 



229 



The unions are beginning to organize here and the labor 
people have several members of Congress. 

Santiago, the capital of Chile, with a population of 400,000, 
lies in a great amphitheater forty miles long and eighteen miles 
wide, enclosed by a great wall of mountains. No city in the 
world has a finer location. There are many beautiful drives,, 
parks and pleasure resorts, and on Sundays and holidays the 
pleasure-loving inhabitants throng these places in great num- 
bers. 




VIEW IN SANTA LUCIA PARK, SANTIAGO, CHILE. 



The Alameda Avenida Delicias, the great boulevard of 
Santiago, is six hundred feet wide and runs the full length 
of the city. The finest private houses front on the Alameda. 
The largest of these are of Spanish style, being built around 
a courtyard, or patio, which is usually open to the sky and full 
of flowers and shrubs, and often ornamented by a fountain in 
the center. 

Sixty-seven miles of electric tramways are operated by a 
private company, which also supplies electric light. This com- 



230 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



pany is an English corpo- 
ration, though the stock is 
owned by Germans and 
the line is operated by the 
same nationality. The 
fare on the tram cars is 
two cents. 

The women of Santiago 
are unusually beautiful, 
and are not stout, as is 
usual in tropical countries. 
Rich and poor alike, they 
all wear, the manto over 
their heads when they go 
to church The manto is a 
sort of black shawl folded 
in such a manner that it is 
very becoming to the 
wearer. 

There are many 
churches in Santiago, and 
the great cathedral facing 
the large Plaza de Armas, 
in the center of the city, is 





PAVILION IN QUINTA NORMAL, 
C0USIN0 PARK, SANTIAGO. 



one of the handsomest 
structures in the world. 
It occupies the entire side 
of the street on the west 
of the plaza. The public 
buildings are very fine 
structures and are sub- 
stantially built. The 
Monida, a massive stone 
building, now the resi- 
dence of the President of 
the republic, contains the 
mint and the ministerial 



A SANTIAGO LADY IN MANTO. 



CHILE 



231 



offices. I observed in the House of Congress a large room 
where they keep a complete set of books and literature of the 
United States Congress. 

Most of the streets in Santiago are paved with asphalt, and 
are correspondingly smooth. The policemen carry swords in- 
stead of the "billy" familiar in the United States. 

In the Quinta Normal, a beautiful park given to the city 
for the poor by the late Sefiora Isadora Cousino, are different 
breeds of dogs, which are kept in cages as we place wild 
animals in our own parks. The Sefiora was at one time re- 
puted to be the richest woman in the world, and the residence 
she erected in Santiago is the finest on the Southern Continent. 

But the park of parks in Santiago is Santa Lucia. For 
striking and picturesque beauty it is scarcely equaled any- 
where in the world. It is a steep and rocky hill, rising to a 
height of some five hundred feet, almost in the heart of the 
city. The original scanty soil of this towering hill has been 
added to by the gardeners until it has become an exquisite park, 




A BIT OF THE COUSINO PARK, SANTIAGO. 



232 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




ENTRANCE TO SANTA LUCIA PARK, SANTIAGO. 



lifting its green and varied masses of verdure above the city, 
like a great hanging garden. It is a most beautiful breathing 
place for the people. Flowers and creeping vines trail over 
the rocks in wild profusion, fountains splash bright waters in 
the sunlight, marble statues gleam against the greenery at 
every turn, cool grottoes invite you to rest in the shade, and 
paths and roads wind here and there. From the summit one 
has a superb view of the city, spread out at one's very feet, 
beyond it the wide, fertile plain, and far away on the horizon 
the mighty procession of the snow-capped Andes, that seem 
to hem the city in on every side. Beautiful and unique is 
Santa Lucia, and fortunately situated is the city of Santiago. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



IN SOUTHERN CENTRAL CHILE. 

THOUGH it was in March, the time was late summer when 
we left Santiago, going still further toward the Antarctic ; 
that is to say, it was late summer in this world beyond the 
equator. It seemed odd to say, "We are going South, where it 
is colder," and it was difficult to reconcile the fact with one's 
former sense of direction 
when one was compelled to 
look toward the north to see 
the sun and moon. 

We left Santiago one even- 
i n g on an electric-lighted 
Pullman car, to travel six 
hundred miles by rail, and 
then through a broken forest 
country. I had instructed 
my secretary and Charlie, my 
servant, to pack and ship 
everything to Concepcion, 
where we were to take the 
steamer for the trip through 
the Straits of Magellan, ex- 
cept such absolute necessities 
as could be transported on 

pack horses. Much to my surprise when I arrived at the 
station I found my secretary with his silk hat box in one hand, 
a portable bathtub in the other, and wearing his tropical 
helmet hat. It reminded me of an occasion when my son Ben, 
then ten years of age, and his young friend, John M. Smyth, 
got lost in the woods, half a mile from my camp in Wisconsin, 
and were found walking along the river carrying an old can 
full of water, fearing that they would die of thirst. 

233 




TRIUMPHAL ARCH IN THE 
CAPITAL OF CHILE. 



234 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

The first three hundred miles south from Santiago lie in a 
part of Chile that has been well settled for two hundred years 
by large farmers {haciendas) , and where even now the owners 
are much like the feudal lords of bygone days in England, 
France and Germany. The Spaniards have never taken kindly 
to shopkeeping or manufacturing and even the hotels, which 
are not half bad, are run by foreigners — mostly French, Ital- 
ians and Germans. The Spaniard's idea of "quality" is that 
of the land owner, where, surrounded by a half-slave race of 
peons, he is, to this day, an actual lord. 

From north to south the rainfall increases, and irrigation 
gradually disappears, until one arrives in a country very much 
like our Northern Pacific Coast States. The products are the 
substantiate of life — meat and wheat, with all the hardy varie- 
ties of vegetables and fruits — apples, pears, peaches, plums, 
grapes, etc. The harvest was over when I was there, in 
March, and the fields looked bare, but the stubble showed that 
there had been a heavy crop of grain. Wheat, the chief grain 
raised, is of a very hard variety, grading With our No. I North- 
ern. There are no elevators, and it has to be shipped at once. 
It is put into sacks, two hundred pounds to the sack, and shipped 
to market (seaport) on flat cars, and the traveler will see 
whole train loads of it en route. It sells on board car net, less 
cost of sack, at 85 cents per bushel. I found no big cattle 
ranches, but every farmer raises some cattle for market. This 
industry is more extensive farther south. 

Our first stop was at Temuco, a town of 10,000 population, 
five hundred miles south of Santiago. I was no sooner settled 
comfortably in my room at the leading hotel when the Gov- 
ernor (Intendente) called upon me, according to instructions 
telegraphed him by the President of the republic, and offered 
me the freedom of the city and province, after which I was 
taken for a horseback ride, dined at a fashionable club, and 
shown many other marks of hospitality. The following is a 
copy of a note written in English, which was handed me, on 
leaving Temuco, by the Governor of the province of Cautin : 



CHILE 



235 




MR. BOYCE WITH ESCORT OF SOLDIERS AND GOVERNOR AT 
TEMUCO, CHILE. 

"Ricardo Delez, Intendente of the province of Cautin, has the 
honor once more of presenting- to the distinguished American peri- 
odista, Mr. W. D. Boyce, his wishes that his stay in the province in 
his charge he agreeable, and feels sorry that the difficulties of the 
language do not permit him expressing this desire verbally. 

"Republic of Chile, Temuco." 



That is the polite way these Castilian gentlemen have of 
being generous to strangers. I was constantly receiving such 
pleasant and valuable kindnesses while in South America. 

I will add that the honorable Governor spoke some Eng- 
lish — about as much as I did Spanish — and that while he may 
not have been able to understand me very well, I understood 
him better when he spoke Spanish than when he essayed Eng- 
lish. The Spanish language is not hard to learn, being spoken 
as it is written, each vowel having but one sound. 



236 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



The province of Cautin is a comparatively new country, 
and in the center of a large Indian settlement. The Indians 
are the Araucanians, that brave, hardy race that taught the 
Chileans to fight, and who were never conquered, but finally, 
after three hundred years, became partly civilized. As far back 
as history goes, they always did some farming, though their 
principal occupation was fighting. There is no record of there 
ever having been enough game for them to live on, as was the 
case with the Indians of North America. At this season of the 
year they were drawing much wheat to market. Ox carts are 
used for all hauling, the roads being too rough for horses, 
except for riding. No corn is raised in this part of the country, 
or in any part of Chile, on account of the cold nights. The 
Humboldt Antarctic stream in the Pacific Ocean, only a com- 
paratively few miles away, makes a blanket necessary at night, 
even when crossing the equator. 

Our next stop was one hundred miles farther south at 
Osorno, a German town of 8,000, which, like all towns in this 
part of Chile is built of wood and spread out over a big area. 
I have observed that all over South America the roofs of build- 
ings are made of galvanized sheet iron from the United States. 
They have to be painted at once to prevent rusting. The peo- 
ple complain that they are very cold in the winter and at night, 
while in the summer and in the daytime they are extremely hot. 




A FAMILY GOING TO MARKET NEAR TEMUCO, CHILE. 



CHILE 



><37 



They do not use tar paper or prepared tar paper roofing, be- 
cause no big American manufacturers of this product, such as 
the General Roofing Company of East St. Louis, 111., Mar- 
seilles, 111., and York, Pa., ever asked them to. Over 1,000 
tons of this kind of roofing are used every day in the United 
States, but the people of South America never heard of it, and 
as there is no shingle timber in this country they use what they 
can get, which is galvanized iron. 

The first German settlement in this section was in 185 1 at 
Valdivia, a port town, northwest of Osorno, where the Spanish 
had tried to locate for two hundred years. It was a heavily- 
timbered section, but the hardy Germans soon cleared it up, 
changing the entire country. They were aided by the Chilean 
Government in colonization, and immigrants came so fast that 
the Chileans became alarmed and began to discourage them. 
The Government very wisely objects to the settlement of too 
many people of one nationality in one section of the country. 
Similarly, I believe, it would be better for the United States if 
the people from each foreign country were scattered more 
widely than they are. 

The chief industry of Osorno is preparing chaqui, or sun- 




CHAQUI, OR SUN-DRIED MEAT, AT OSORNO, CHILE. 



238 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

dried meat, and there are two packing houses engaged in this 
business. They buy the poor old cattle principally, and one 
of the houses buys old horses as well. The whole carcass is 
cut into thin slices which are laid out flat on bamboo poles, that 
are raised from the ground, where they are left to cure in the 
sun and- air. After being thoroughly cured the meat is packed 
in one-hundred-pound bundles and shipped north to the nitrate 
fields and mines, selling at twenty-five cents a pound, wholesale. 
At this point it may be of interest to state that in 1910 a con- 
sular report estimated that Chile has approximately 700,000 
horses and mules, 2,500,000 head of cattle, 3,000,000 sheep, 
500,000 goats, and 300,000 hogs. About 450,000 cattle, 600,- 
000 sheep, and 140,000 hogs are slaughtered annually. 

Osorno is the end of the railroad at the present time, an ex- 
tension of seventy miles to Puerto Montt being in the course 
of construction. Puerto Montt possesses the best harbor on 
the Chilean coast, being sheltered from the storms of the Pacific 
by islands in all directions. 

We were advised that we could ride to Lake Llanquihue in 
five hours, though no one seemed to know just how many miles 
it was to the lake. We left at two o'clock p. m. and at seven 
we were less than halfway to our destination. We stopped 
for dinner at the Hotel Ingles, kept by a motherly old Eng- 
lish widow of the late Queen Victoria type, who forty years 
ago, when a charming young girl, married the Chilean, General 
Oliveres. Here I enjoyed the first glass of fresh milk I had 
been able to get in all South America. 

As the boat crossing the lake sailed next morning at six 
o'clock, we pushed on, arriving at our destination at two o'clock 
in the morning. My horse gave out, so I walked during the last 
three hours of the journey. As our pack horses also gave out I 
kept myself warm by stirring them up occasionally with the 
aid of a club. My secretary went to sleep on his horse and 
fell off ; fortunately he alighted on his head and his big helmet 
hat saved him from injury. The country through which we 
passed after dark, the moon going down at nine o'clock, was a 
dense woods, with here and there a settler's cabin from which 
big packs of dogs rushed out barking and snapping as if they 
would tear us to pieces. We learned afterward that this forest 



CHILE 



239 




THE SEA WALL AT PUERTO MONTT, CHILE. 



is infested by bands of robbers, and people acquainted with the 
country shun it at night. Frequently I instinctively reached for 
my revolver, and Charlie said he never took his hand off his 
knife. The mozo (the man in charge of the horses) ob- 
jected to making the trip in the dark, and as a result he swore 
very nearly every step of the way. If any one wants to know 
the distance from Osorno to Lake Llanquihue I can inform 
him that it is at least sixty miles, and that he cannot reach it in 
five hours on horseback, no matter what the natives may say. 

The next morning we learned that the regular boat, on ac- 
count of making many stops, could not take us across the lake 
in time for us to reach Puerto Montt and return that day, so I 
hired a special boat to take us across and back, at a cost of 
$120 Chilean money — $30 United States money. For six 
hours we breasted a head-on sea and heavy wind, all the time 
in sight of snow-capped mountains and white-capped waves. 
We were never out of sight of Mt. Osorno, a peak 8,000 feet 
high, which was once an active volcano. We arrived at Puerto 
Viras at noon, having made twenty miles in the six hours, 
and made the sixteen miles to Puerto Montt in three hours, 
over the worst road I have ever traveled. 



240 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

We found Puerto Montt a representative Holland or 
North German city — clean and quiet, with grass, geese and 
healthy, rosy-cheeked children in the streets. As before stated, 
the harbor was the best I had seen since leaving Havana. A 
great concrete seawall protects the water-front. The city lies 
in a semicircle around the bay at the base of a line of hills that 
are from three hundred to five hundred feet high and beautified 
by gardens and vines. We stopped here only long enough to 
drink some of their chicha (cider) made from apples and 
pears, a combination hard to equal, and to take some photo- 
graphs. We rode back to the lake in about the same time and 
took dinner at eight p. m. at a charming little German hotel, 
while our captain and his little steamer were waiting for us. 
We made the return trip across the lake in about three hours, 
but nearly swamped several times. The lake was the roughest 
it had ever been in his experience, the old navigator informed 
us, but as we had to be in Osorno by the following evening we 
faced the peril. The small steamer had a resounding whistle, 
reminding me of the traditional steamer on the Mississippi 
River, which was so small and her whistle so great, that every 
time the captain blew the whistle the boat stopped for lack of 
steam. 

At six a. m. we "forked" our horses, and at six p. m., tired 
and stiff, we rolled off at our starting point, having made one 
hundred and fifty-two miles in fifty- four hours, the quickest 
time on record for the journey. We did not have our clothes 
off during the trip, but all I needed to recuperate from the 
fatigue was a bath and a good night's rest. 

The journey was replete with interesting and sometimes 
odd sights. Blackberries were ripe, and the bushes and vines 
were the largest I have ever seen. They ran on the ground, piled 
up in masses, climbed trees where they got the chance, and in one 
instance, the bushes were twenty feet high. The berries were 
exceedingly juicy and plentiful. I judged that at least 50,000 
bushels could have been picked from the bushes we passed on 
the way. The vines are said to be a great injury to the coun- 
try, as they grow every place and kill many trees. The clear- 
ings and fields were covered with thistles. 

The cattle and horses do something here that I have never 



CHILE 



241 



observed elsewhere. In the winter time the grass is poor and 
the ground so wet that it is difficult for them to get a living, as 
the people put up no hay and burn their straw. The cattle and 
horses browse about, living on the leaf of a species of bamboo 
that thrives here, unless destroyed. It looks something like 
the elephant grass I saw in Africa, only it is not so tall. In 
Africa it grows from ten to fifteen feet high, while here it is 
only three to five feet in height and is willowy, bending so 
easily that at first I thought it was a species of willow. How- 
ever, the cattle keep in good condition, and I was told that the 
milk of the cows was wholesome and sweet. 

The absence of bird life, especially at "berry time," struck 
me as very peculiar, but I could get no explanation. I had 
seen no game birds nor game of any kind; had seen no one 
shooting, and in fact heard but one gun fired. There were no 
mosquitoes, nor insects of any kind in this country, and I did 
not see a screened window in all Chile. 

Speaking of windows, the low-caste Indians of Chile build 




BLACKBERRY BUSHES ALONG ROAD, OSORNO TO PUERTO MONTT. CHILE. 



16 



-A 2 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH A Ad ERICA 



their houses without windows, floors or chimneys. They make 
a fire in a hole in the ground, which is lined with stones, and 
put into this hole all they have to cook — meat, fish or anything 
else — and then put in some hot stones and cover the top with 
mud, cooking the entire mess together. When the food is 
sufficiently done, all hands, including dogs and hogs, gather to 
the feast, eating out of the hole in the ground, the people using 
their fingers as forks. Possibly it was savory enough, but cer- 
tainly not very inviting. 

The ponchos, that are worn by everybody in this section, 
are very brilliant in colors, being 
mostly striped red and yellow or 
blue and gold. They are very 
warm, and, are exceedingly pic- 
turesque, as they flap in the wind 
on the horseman who usually 
. rides at a gallop. 

The roto does the only real 
labor that is done, except that 
performed by the immigrant. 
The pay for a roto is two to 
three pesos per day, fifty to 
seventy-five cents in United 
States money, hence this is no 
country for the white laborer. 
The farmer, immigrant or mer- 
chant, can carve out a place for 
himself not possible in an older 
and more settled country. He 
will do better still if he is Span- 
ish, Italian, or of Latin blood 

and breeding. To a man from the United States it seems odd 
to see everything moved by ox carts, many very primitive, 
with solid wooden hubs and wheels made by cutting off the 
end of a log. One can hear them squeak for a mile or more, 
and it reminded me of the old Red River of the North carts 
used by the Indians and traders in the early days of the North- 
west. 

From about 40 degrees south to the Antarctic Ocean, a dis- 




COWBOY OF SOUTHERN CENTRAL 
CHILE. 



CHILE 243 

tance of one thousand miles, Chile is one vast forest, the trees 
becoming smaller and more stunted in growth, the farther 
south one goes. The country is rugged and the "sliver" of 
land along the coast, or back to the Argentina line, is only 
about fifty miles wide. There are many bays and rivers, but 
the Pacific Ocean is so dangerous to navigate along this coast 
that it is difficult to get the timber to market. The Indians 
have cut all the soft woods and floated them to market, but the 
hard woods will not float. For years the medium of exchange 
— the only "money" — was planks and boards delivered at some 
port and exchanged for brandy, medicine, and firearms, with 
some little coast-trader sailing ship. The only white men 
who have ever gone through a large part of this country were 
the members of the Boundary Commission. 

From Puerto Montt north for two hundred miles, between 
the mountains and ocean, there are little sawmills — we would 
call them "portable" — driven by traction engines. The heavy 
timber is cut and hewed square where the tree falls, to save 
weight in taking it to the mills. I watched many of these 
little mills at work, and formed the opinion that there would 
be great profits in this country for enterprising firms of the 
United States, if they would but introduce our sawmill ma- 
chinery into southern Chile. 

Of the standing timber which I observed, only the cypress 
and poplar look anything like the trees of North America, and 
the names are quite different. A tree called alerce has a great 
white trunk or stem, and grows sometimes to a height of two 
hundred and forty feet, with a diameter of fifteen feet. It is 
something like the California redwood, and the timber is ex- 
cellent. Cypress is found all the way to Cape Horn, but be- 
comes stunted as you go south. Roblepellin, which is very 
heavy, is used for posts, piles and bridges, and will last one 
hundred years in water. It is very plentiful. Raidi is used 
for all inside house-finishing work, making fine flooring; it is 
also used in making furniture, and is cheap and abundant. 
Lingae is a very strong and heavy timber, being used for casks, 
barrels, carts, and fine furniture, on which hand or machine 
carving can be beautifully executed. Avellano is a beautiful 
spotted wood, used only for fine furniture, and is getting very 



244 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

scarce. However, it should be remembered that there are still 
one thousand miles of forest belonging to the Government that 
have never been surveyed or explored. 

I observed the usual wanton destruction of fine forests to 
make room for settlers' fields by "ringing" trees and then set- 
ting them on fire after they had died. This is really criminal in 
any country. In the United States we have been paying dearly 
for the foolish destruction of our forests. The quantity of 
timber left has become so scarce that a gigantic trust now con- 
trols the lumber market of the United States and charges 
whatever price it can squeeze out of the public. Here the 
price is $10 to $20 per thousand feet, and as this is the only 
great timber belt left in the world, at present accessible, it is a 
wonder that the Lumber Trust does not try to monopolize it in 
some way. If the Chilean Government does not keep a sharp 
lookout, it will. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PHASES OF CHILEAN GOVERNMENT. 

THERE are no States in any republic in South America, on 
the Pacific coast — only provinces, governed by appointees 
of the President. Otherwise there would always be wars or 
revolutions. A strong centralized government is absolutely 
essential to impart solidity and permanence to these re- 
publics. Again, the provinces are divided into districts, and 
again the President appoints the rulers, or as they are called, 
Governors of Departments. Chile has twenty-three provinces 
and one territory, each with an Intendente, or Chief Governor, 
and I do not know how many departments, similar to our Con- 
gressional districts; but all are ruled by direct appointees of the 
President. The municipal organizations, or cities, including the 
police of the cities, are directly under the Minister of the In- 
terior, who is one of the President's Cabinet. Thus, you ob- 
serve, everything tends to a very strong centralized govern- 
ment, which reaches into every corner and small hamlet of the 
entire republic. 

Strange to say, and almost beyond belief or understanding 
to a North American, this system does not tend toward per- 
petuation in office of one political party. The President is 
elected for four years, and is not eligible to immediate re-elec- 
tion. The latter fact serves as a check upon party continuity. 
Many people in the United States favor the election of the 
President for six years, with a law making him ineligible to re- 
election. This would take the chief executive out of politics 
and make him the President of all the people instead of a 
party. 

The great difference between the political system of the 
United States and that of Chile lies in the fact that the Cabi- 
net of the President of Chile is not selected by him, a 

245 



CHILE 247 

majority of this body being chosen by the Congress. This, 
if applied to the United States, would mean that a Repub- 
lican President might have a Democratic Cabinet. Each 
Cabinet member of the Government of Chile has the right 
to introduce certain bills in Congress, and whenever a bill 
introduced by a Cabinet member is voted down, the entire 
Cabinet resigns, as it is shown, thereby, that the Congress 
and President's advisers are not working in harmony, 
and it then becomes necessary to appoint a new Cabinet. 
During the past ten years there have been ten new Cabinets 
in Chile, and it has kept the President's party busy keeping up 
with the changes. One excellent thing arises from this system 
— no party stays in power long enough to become corrupt. 
Nominally, the Liberal party has been in power here for years, 
but the many changes in the Cabinet membership show that 
the party's continuation in power is rather in name than in fact. 

The Congress is absolutely supreme, and is composed of 
Senators, elected for six years, and members of the House, 
elected for three years, instead of two, as in the United States. 
Members of the House, however, receive no pay. Two years 
is entirely too short a period for any member of Congress to 
show that he even ought to have been elected ; three years is 
somewhat better. 

Of course, in Chile the strong arm for the execution of the 
laws and for the enforcement of the constitution is the courts. 
Here the system is somewhat different from that of the United 
States, the judges being appointed by the President, but only, 
in obedience to the laws of the country, upon the recommenda- 
tion of the judges already holding office. Judges are appointed 
for life, or during good behavior. This takes them away from the 
corrupting influence of politics — a consummation to be heart- 
ily approved. Strange to say, the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of Chile, Hon. Julius Foster, is the son of a merchant 
from the United States, who came here years ago and married 
a Chilean lady. He is a brilliant jurist, highly respected and 
honored, and one of the most delightful men I met in South 
America. I am satisfied from all I can learn of the courts, 
from the highest to the lowest, that they are equal in fairness 
and impartiality to the courts of the United States. This is 



248 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

absolutely essential to a foreigner doing business in any- 
country. 

The Chilean army and navy are respected and feared, not 
only by the people of this republic, but by all other South 
American countries. The army has 17,500 officers and men in 
time of peace, with a possible increase to 150,000 in time of 
war. The service is well-officered and equipped with the 
very latest arms, the men being trained by European army of- 
ficers. 

Owing to the necessity of protecting the 2,700 miles of 
coast of this "sliver" republic, the navy is absolutely of the 
first importance, and it has never been defeated. Lord Coch- 
rane, of England, who organized the first Chilean navy, during 
the struggle for independence from Spain in 1810-1818, did 
more for Chile's success in that war than any other one man. 
His originality and courage set an example that has been 
worthily followed ever since. Chile's navy ranks, with 7,000 
officers and men, eighth in strength and importance in the 
world. 

The unit of money is the dirty paper peso, or, at par, 
thirty-six cents in United States money. It is redeemable in 
gold in 191 5 — if not worn out before that time — yet, it is only 
worth twenty-three cents in gold today. This is difficult to 
understand until you learn that all the old obligations and mort- 
gages given are payable in pesos, and do not specify "gold" as 
United States mortgages do, and so long as they can keep the 
value down they are paying off their debts with a depreciated 
currency on a par basis. 

Chile has now $25,000,000 in gold deposited in New York 
and London, out of reach for possible use for any other pur- 
pose than to enable her to "make good" in redeeming the paper 
money, and in reaching a gold basis in 191 5. Many citizens of 
Chile doubt that she will "resume" at that date, and are making 
all obligations payable in "gold" pesos. Silver money is re- 
deemable in gold. Chile has no national banks and the Govern- 
ment issues all the money. However, there are many banks, 
and branch banks of foreign banking houses. Every important 
country is represented, except the United States. 

The Government of Chile ought to be able to go on a gold 



250 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

basis, except for her unwarranted expense in building up a 
navy. She has the largest income per capita of any country in 
the world. Chile has only 4,000,000 people, yet she receives 
$50,000,000 a year from export — not import — duties, prin- 
cipally from the nitrate industry. She is extracting her wealth 
from other countries, not from her own people, as is done by 
the import duties of the United States. 

There is no reason why Chile should have any foreign war, 
as all her boundary lines, the cause of South American wars, 
have been settled — especially the dangerous one with Argen- 
tina. Peru would like to get back her lost province, but she 
never will, as she is too poor to build a navy to contest the ques- 
tion with Chile. 

Taxes are very low, and are for the most part assessed 
against real estate — the visible property — something on the 
order of the Henry George theory of the single tax. Mer- 
chandise, mining and manufacturing pay but very little. 

\ There are no Government monopolies, as there are in 
other South American and Europeait^countries. The tariff, 
or. import taxes, oh '"merchandise arid tobacco is very small, and 
nothing on most machinery, paper, books or anything that tends 
toward the development of the country; _':;'The liquor and beer 
tax i§ quite high and will be made higher to discotirage so much 
drinking, : which is the curse of the country. Up : to. . twenty 
years ago Chile, was a free trade country. -' 

The . Postal Department is admirably conducted on broad 
lines, and as the Government owns the railroads, the postal 
system is not run, as in the United States, for the benefit of the 
railroads. Postage is the same for letters as in the United 
States ; newspapers and periodicals are free, as they should be 
in every country. Even Canada charges only one-half the rate 
charged by the United States for newspapers and periodicals. 
The Chilean parcels post is the most advanced and practical of 
any in the world. The rate charged for this class of matter is 
one-half that charged by the United States Government, and 
every postoffice is a custom house where duties can be paid on 
all merchandise received by mail from foreign countries. 
Montgomery Ward & Co., of Chicago, do a large mail order 
business in Chile. This firm distributes catalogues to the citi- 



v. 



CHILE 



251 




RAILWAY STATION, TALCAHUANO, CHILE. 



zens of Chile, in Spanish. The Postal Department also guar- 
antees delivery for a small fee, insures all such packages, and 
will handle the same C. O. D. ; in other words, it does the ex- 
press, business of the country, which our Postal Department 
has handed over to the express monopoly of the United States. 
Notwithstanding its excellence in service, and the many con- 
veniences it affords, the Postal Department of Chile pays a 
profit ! 

In one respect Chile is unfortunate — she had to build her 
own railroads, quickly to develop and protect her country, 
and she thereby created a national debt of $125,000,000. This 
is not a very large debt, considering the fact that the railroads 
could be sold easily for that sum, wiping out the debt entirely. 
However, in building her own railroads she has saved her 
public lands, which is in contrast to the execrable policy of the 
United States Government in giving away the people's domain 
to the railroads, which now charge the public five times as 
much for carrying the mail as they do the express companies 
for the very same service, and often in the same car. The 
railroads here are operated for the people, but they are not 
well operated, because the employes are all on the Government 



252 ILL USTRA TED SO UTH AMERICA 

payroll, instead of in the employ of some well-operated cor- 
poration. The management of the railroads changes with the 
change of governmental officials, and the equipment of the 
roads is a veritable junk shop, being composed of a mixture 
of American, English, German, French and Spanish cars and 
locomotives that do not work well together. They have some 
of the best passenger and freight cars I have ever seen, and 
some of the poorest. One never knows when one is going to 
"get there," and might quite as well be on a sailing vessel. 

The rates charged are much lower than in the United States 
or Europe, and the roads are operated at a big loss, to say 
nothing about the interest on the investment. The Govern- 
ment has 2,000 miles in operation and is building 2,000 miles 
more. The gauge varies from three feet three inches to five 
feet six inches. The standard gauge the world over, except in 
Russia, is four feet eight and one-half inches. There has been 
talk in Chile of the Government leasing the roads to some 
responsible syndicate that will standardize the whole system, 
and many of the people hope that the project will not end in 
talk. There are about eight hundred miles of well-conducted, 
privately-owned roads to mines and other industries. These 
roads charge a higher rate than the Government roads — about 
the same as in the United States — but they are run in a busi- 
nesslike way and the service is worth more to the traveler and 
shipper. 

My next topic is one on which I speak advisedly — the news- 
paper and publishing business. If the circulation of the blood 
in your body is poor, you are unhealthy; if the circulation of 
newspapers, periodicals and books is discouraged, made ex- 
pensive, or hampered in any way, in any country, the body 
politic, moral and physical, becomes stagnant and unhealthy. 
The constitution of Chile, like that of the United States, de- 
clares for the freedom of the press. In Chile there is absolute 
freedom in the matter of printing anything, reading matter or 
advertisements, that the publisher may wish or his readers 
want. Not so in the United States ! The Postmaster General 
daily violates the Constitution of the Union by his decision of 
what a publisher may print, and, if he wishes to, he rules a 
publication out of the mails, killing it— and the publisher's 



CHILE 



253 



work of a lifetime may be ruined. Of course, years afterward 
he may get his publication back into the mails, through a court 
decision, but it is too late — the subscribers and business are 
gone, and he must start all over again. 

Again, the Chilean Government, believing in the education 
of the masses, encourages the circulation of all publications 
possible by charging no postage, and, of course, the readers 
receive the benefit. Again, Chile, believing in education, has 
no duty on white or blank paper of any kind for newspaper, 
periodical or book printing. The result is that white paper, 
made in the United States, is sold here for less than I pay for 
the paper on which my publications are printed, in Chicago. If 
the United States Postal Department was run on the same 
broad basis as that of Chile, the rate of postage on all classes 




THE CATHEDRAL, SANTIAGO, CHILE. 



254 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

of matter could be cut in half and the postal deficit entirely 
eliminated. We publishers in the United States should at least 
be able to get our print paper at home as cheaply as they get it 
here, shipped, as it is, more than 10,000 miles by rail and water 
— and every reader in the United States would be benefited 
thereby. . 

The oldest paper in South America is El Mercurio, pub- 
lished now in four Chilean cities, with four separate offices, 
which are completely equipped from the United States, and are 
equal to our best plants, the mechanical managers being from 
the United States. In Santiago, as well as in the other cities 
where it is published, El Mercurio has the largest circulation, 
although there are other very enterprising and well-patronized 
publications. Forty per cent of the population of 4,000,000 
can read, so there is a reading public of 1,600,000. In all, Chile 
has 330 publications — 150 dailies, 150 weeklies, semi-weeklies 
and E. O. D.'s (every other day), and twenty monthlies. No 
person in Chile can vote unless he can read, and every man and 
boy is learning to read. Chile has double the reading popula- 
tion percentage of any other country in South America, and it 
is largely due to the liberal treatment of the press. 

The most encouraging characteristic I observed about the 
Chileans was that no difference how well they do anything 
they say : "We can do that better." They are continually put- 
ting the standard of everything higher and trying to reach it — 
that is why they are so successful. 

The United States Minister to Chile is Honorable Henry P. 
Fletcher of Pennsylvania. He has represented the United 
States as secretary of the legation at China and Portugal, and 
was appointed minister to Chile on account of his good record, 
without even applying for the post or knowing that he was 
being considered, until he read of his appointment in the press. 
The United States Government has at last realized the mistake 
of sending unfit men to South America, and that the damaging 
impression made thereby must be obliterated. Therefore, we 
are now sending our best diplomats, but we should pay them- 
salaries that would induce them to remain in the service con- 
tinuously. 

The mines of Chile have been of great importance through- 



CHILE 



255 



out her history. The country contains gold, silver, copper, lead 
and iron as well as coal, nitrate and borates. The Caracoles 
silver mines, 10,000 feet above sea level, are famous for their 
production. 

Many fortunes have been made from copper mining, and 
there are many establishments for working ores, and nearly all 
treat the ores by smelting, though the number of smelters 
is not sufficient to regulate the price of metal in the country. 
An American company, the Bradon Copper Company (the 
Guggenheim interests) have large mines at Rancagua, some 
two hours by rail from Santiago, where 3,000 men are em- 
ployed, and there are many hustling young men from Montana 
among them. 

Chilean coal mining is an important industry today, this 
important product having been discovered at Lota, near the 
city of Concepcion in 1805. The property was bought by Don 
Matias Cousino, the history of whose family would alone make 




BRINGING NOONTIME LUNCH FOR THE MINERS AT THE LOTA 
COAL MINES, CHILE. 



256 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



an interesting chapter. Don Matias established fire brick and 
tile works and a smelter, and later the present company was 
formed, all the shares being held by the members of the Cousino 
family. The strata of these great coal mines dip to the west, 
and a large part of the workings are below the Pacific Ocean. 
Today all the latest appliances are used, electric tram cars 
bringing the coal from the shafts, while the galleries are lighted 
by electricity. There are five pits, which produce from eight 
hundred to one thousand tons a day. There are about 6,000 
men employed by the company, which also owns a great landed 
property. A church, hospital and free medical attention are 
provided for the men. It is said that the net profits of this 
concern are $1,200,000 a year. 

At Cebollar, on the pampas back of Antofagasta, are the 
largest borax deposits in South America, and they are operated 
by the same company that operates in Death Valley, California. 

An aerial tramway 
brings down from the 
mountains dry moss, 
which is used for fuel. 
During the period of 
Spanish rule in Chile 
the only currency of 
the country was gold 
dust, and in the south- 
ern part of Chile today 
part of the population 
gains a living by treat- 
ing the gold-bearing 
sands of the rivers and 
streams by the old 
method of cradle and 
pan. Gold is also 
found in veins, inclosed 
in veins of copper or 
natural silver; but the 
work is for the most 
part done in a primi- 
tive manner. 

A CORNER OF THE SPLENDID COUSINO 
MANSION, LOTA, CHILE. 




CHILE 



257 




THE AGRICULTURAL MONUMENT, CONCEPCTON, 
CHILE. 

In Chile there are numerous interesting things that might 
be described. Indeed, a useful volume might be written rela- 
tive to this remarkable country and its vigorous and intelligent 
people ; but in covering a vast continent like South America the 
observer can, obviously, treat no more than the most salient 
points of each country. 



17 



THE STRAITS AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 

Straits discovered by Fernando de Magellan in 1510 — Probably 
delayed the digging of the Panama Canal hundreds of 
years — The Straits a picturesque but dangerous passage 
from ocean to ocean — Punta Arenas, on the Straits, the 
world's farthest city south — Falkland Islands, tiventy-two 
in number, English possessions — Area, 7,500 square miles 
— Population, 2,336, mostly Scotch. and English — Chief in- 
dustries, zvhaling and raising sheep. 

CHAPTER XV. 
THROUGH THE STRAITS. 

FROM Concepcion, the third largest city of the Republic of 
Chile, half an hour by train brought us to the port of Tal- 
cahuano, where lies the Chilean naval base, a very impressive 
establishment of shops and dry docks. Soon after that we 
were on the broad breast of the Pacific out of sight of land, 
heading for the dreaded Straits of Magellan. In all the vast 
region about the southern tip of the South American con- 
tinent the winds pour cold and strong from out the Antarctic 
Ocean and navigation is dangerous. It is a cold, rough world, 
the history of which is largely a story of shipwrecks. 

As I stood on the Oronsa's deck, looking toward the coast 
of Chile, I thought of the thousands of human faces we had 
looked upon in our long journey from Panama, of the varied 
shades of nationalities and types, the numerous languages and 
dialects used in seeking expression, yet clearly we were all 
brothers. In proof of this I reflected that we had addressed 
numerous Indian guides and porters and waiters by such 
familiar and fraternal names as Jim and Joe and Jack, mainly 
because we found it impossible to pronounce their real names. 
Our experience in this respect was not unlike that of a delight- 
ful young woman of New York, who married a San Francisco 
man. Her first act in organizing her domestic establishment 
was the engaging of a Chinese cook. 

258 



THE STRAITS AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 259 

"What's your name?" she asked, when the preliminaries 
had been settled. 

"My name Hong Long Loo," said the Celestial, with much 
gravity. 

"And I am Mrs. Harrington Richard Buckingham," said 
the new employer. "I am afraid I shall never be able to re- 
member your name — it's so long. I shall call you John." 

"All light," returned the Chinaman, with a suspicion of a 
smile. "Your namee too longee, too. I callee you Bill." 

Our abridgment of Indian and South American names 
was hardly ever so misapplied as that, but sometimes quite as 
familiar. 

From Puerto Montt south to Cape Pillar, the western en- 
trance to the Straits of Magellan, there is a succession of 
islands through hundreds of miles, and between these islands 
and the mainland are numerous channels. All the country 
along the coast is wild and unexplored, and inhabited only by 
Indians. 

As we approached Cape Pillar and the Straits, the strange 
story of the white man's discovery of this region came vividly 
to my mind. 




ENGINE-ROOM OF THE STEAMSHIP 0R0NSA. 



260 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

After South America was discovered by Columbus, it was 
believed for twenty-five years that there was no passage around 
the southern end of the continent, so all communication with 
the west coast of South America was across the Isthmus of 
Panama. In 15 19 Fernando de Magellan, a Portuguese, prom- 
ised his King he would try to find a southern passage around 
the new world. 

He sailed with a fleet of tiny ships, the largest of which 
was 130 tons, the smallest 60 tons, and after the usual mutiny, 
shipwreck, and other hardships that were the lot of explorers, 
reached a point of land at the eastern end of the Straits, which 
he named Cape Virgin, in honor of his patron saint. With 
only two of his four ships left, he entered the Straits, emerging 
from them into the Pacific Ocean on November 27th. 

He lost his life in a fight with the Indians on an island, and 
only one small ship of his original fleet ever succeeded in re- 
turning to Portugal. The report of the finding of the passage 
into the Pacific Ocean was discredited, and it was not until 
seven years afterward that any other vessel passed through 
the Straits that have ever since borne the name of Magellan. 

Spain, being in control of the coast, fortified the eastern 
end of the Straits, thereby intending to keep out all pirates and 
"foreigners." Had she succeeded in doing this the Panama 
Canal would have been digged, probably, two hundred years 
ago. 

It was an age of monumental thievery, and that prince of 
pirates and master of navigation, Francis Drake, was given a 
commission by England to "purloin" from Spain the gold and 
silver they had wrested from the Indians after they had mur- 
dered them, and in 1578 Drake ran the blockade and got 
through the Straits from the east. When he reached the 
Pacific Ocean his ships were blown south and southeast, and 
finally when they could sail north they found themselves again 
at the eastern entrance of the Straits, and thus knew that they 
had rounded the southern end of South America in an open 
sea. 

This was an epoch-making discovery, as it opened up the 
western coast of South and North America to the world. For 
this and the great amount of gold he forcibly took from other 



THE STRAITS AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 261 




TAKEN FROM DECK OF STEAMER IN STRAITS 
OF MAGELLAN. ISLAND OF SOUTHERN 
CROSS IN DISTANCE. 



ships, Drake was "knighted." Of course, his discovery was a 
pure accident. However, the trip around Cape Horn is so 
long and dangerous that few boats ever attempt it. Unfortu- 
nately we passed through most of the Straits at night and could 
take but few photographs. I walked the deck until one o'clock 
in the morning, looking at the snow-clad cliffs and mountains by 
moonlight, and observed that at many places the "narrows" 
are only a hundred yards or so wide. 

In this wild region the glaciers come down to the water's 
edge, and frequently ships go right up to them and cut ice 
sufficient to fill their cold storage chests. Here and there we 
could see fires on some of the receding shore points, and were 
reminded that it was from these fires, which are kept up all 
the time by the Indians, that the great island to the south of 
the Straits took its name — Tierra del Fuego (land of fire). 

This great island, with the small islands and the country 
north of the Straits, forms the great sheep ranges of South 
America. Formerly this country, with the southern end of 
Argentina, was known as Patagonia, and will be found so 
marked on all school maps published twenty or more years ago. 



262 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



The people put up no hay or shelter for their millions of 
sheep, allowing them to run out all winter, although the coun- 
try is as far south as the southern end of Hudson Bay, in 
Canada, is north. Immense fortunes have been made in sheep 
ranching in this part of the world, as an instance of which I 
met a Chilean in Punta Arenas who owns a ranch which is as 
large as the whole State of Connecticut, and he is worth $10,- 
000,000 gold. Most of the sheep ranches are owned by Scotch- 
men and Englishmen, who came from Australia when the 
grazing lands of that country became overcrowded. 

Possibly the lowest race 
of Indians in the world -live 
on the barren west coast of 
the island of Tierra del 
Fuego. They are called the 
Yaghans. They go practi- 
cally nude, and having no 
homes, push along the shore 
in "dugouts," carrying their 
families with them, and al- 
ways keep a fire burning in 
the boats. 

In the family's daily life 
the woman paddles the boat, 
w h i 1 e the man, crouched 
down in the stern, keeps a 
constant lookout for some- 
thing to eat. They live on 
mussels, crabs, fish, or any- 
thing, dead or alive, that 
they can find. They go 
ashore at night, pull some 
seaweed or grass or rocks 
together for shelter, and 
keep their fire going. They 
have no matches, and this 
fire must never go out. In 
case of a storm on the water, 
the men throw the women 

A YAGHAN INDIAN, LOWER 
CHILE. 




THE STRAITS AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 263 




and children 
overboard and 
save themselves. 
They have no 
tribal relations 
or chiefs, and 
they kill the old 
women and de- 
formed chil- 
dren. It is esti- 
mated that there 
are only about 
five hundred of 
them left. There 
are other Indian 
tribes inhabiting 
both the north 
and west por- 
tions of t h i S A YAGHAN INDIAN GRASS HUT, ON THE STRAITS 

cold and forbid- 
ding projecture of the South American continent. 

There is really only one wild food beast in all this part of 
the earth — the guanaco, an ungainly, awkward-looking, horn- 
less deer, or antelope. It has a long neck, like a camel, and 
hindquarters like a mule. It often feeds with the sheep, mi- 
grating with the seasons.— 

Punta Arenas is the last port we touched in Chile, and is 
the farthest south of any city in the world. It has a popula- 
tion of 13,000, although before the gold boom collapsed it must 
have had 15,000. There were many empty houses when we 
were there. 

Punta Arenas is the port from which all the wool from this 
section is shipped, and it is very considerable, for over 2.500,000 
sheep find food in southern Chile and her island of Tierra del 
Fuego, while there are 1,000,000 sheep in the southern end of 
Argentina, which also ships from this port. 

These sheep grow splendid fleeces of wool, averaging about 
eight pounds to the fleece, and it is worth 20 cents a pound. 



264 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




PUNTA ARENAS, ON THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN, CHILE. THE 
FARTHEST SOUTH OF ANY TOWN IN THE WORLD. 

Hence the wool crop of this port brings $5,600,000 a year, and 
adding to this the sum received from frozen mutton, tallow and 
hides, this one Antarctic port has an income from sheep alone 
of $10,000,000 a year — and it is a very sure crop. As we sailed 
away from this sheepland city we took our final look at Chile, 
and said good-by, perhaps forever. 

After a rough voyage and numerous interesting sights, we 





A STREET IN PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE. 



THE STRAITS AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 265 

came to the Falkland Islands, which are English possessions, 
and sailed into the beautiful harbor of Port Stanley. 

The story of the Falkland Islands reads like a romance. 
Just about the time of the discovery of the Straits of Magellan 
a British exploration expedition located these islands, and the 
members of this expedition were no doubt the first white men 
to "see" them. No settlement was made at this time, but as 
was the custom in those days of exploration and discovery, a 
party went ashore, hoisted a flag, fired a salute, and claimed 
the land for their King (if they could hold it) and then sailed 
away. The English always took the precaution to make a 
record of their findings in latitude and longitude, and years 
afterward could prove it. 

Next came the French — after the English had run them out 
of Canada — and they made a settlement, claiming the islands 
for the King of France. But England made them give up 
possession. Then came the Spanish, in the name of the United 




A GUANACO, SUPPOSED TO BE THE LLAMA'S 

ANCESTOR. A WILD, WARY ANIMAL 

RANGING FROM THE EQUATOR 

TO CAPE HORN. 



266 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Provinces of South America. They took the islands from 
England and held them until the Spanish murdered some 
sealers and whalers from the United States. The United 
States forces expelled the Spanish from the islands, then 
returned to Buenos Aires. The islands being unoccupied, Eng- 
land put in a claim of original discovery, and as Uncle Sam 




GOING ASHORE ON LIGHTERS AT PORT STANLEY, FALKLAND 
ISLANDS. 



THE STRAITS AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 267 




A CHURCH IN PORT STANLEY, FALKLAND ISLANDS. 

did not contest the matter the islands have been under the 
domination of England ever since. 

The Falkland group consists of twenty-two islands, on 
which sufficient grass grows, on 2,000,000 acres, to support 
724,000, sheep, which are owned by thirty-nine different com- 
panies or individuals. No more sheep could find pasturage. 
The wool product of the islands sells for $1,500,000 a year. 



I 






"~~* 


t i M _- 


1 ' . 







THE GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE, FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



268 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




THE JAIL, PORT STANLEY, FALKLAND ISLANDS. 

The increase of flocks is 25 per cent each year and the deaths 
10 per cent, hence 15 per cent must be killed and shipped or 
consumed at home. Mutton is 4 cents a pound, hence a con- 
siderable sum is realized from this source. They have no 
freezing plants, but a cannery is being established. 

The population is 2,336, the death rate eight to the thou- 
sand per year, and the birth rate twenty-three to the thousand. 
The population is mostly Scotch and English. 




TEN THOUSAND SHEEP IN ONE FLOCK, FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



THE STRAITS AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 269 

The best whaling waters in this part of the world lie off 
these islands and south to the frozen Antarctic country. For- 
merly the United States whalers (when we had ships on the 
ocean) came here every year; now the only whalers are from 
Norway. The only harbors are at these islands, and to use 
them the whalers must take out a British license, which is a 
source of considerable revenue to the crown. 

Some seals are taken in this vicinity, but principally for the 
oil, as the fur is not very good. A company had just been 
licensed when we were there to kill and press the oil from that 
most wonderful bird, the penguin, which is very plentiful on 
the rocky islands. This bird cannot fly; it has a head like a 
bird, feathers almost like fur, its wings have scales on them, 
its legs are so short the feet seem to be attached to the body, it 
possesses a tail like a seal, and is very rich in fat. Why it 
should be called a Avaterfowl I am at loss to say. 




SHEEP ON BOARD SHIP, FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



270 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



It was a very cloudy, wet day when I visited their rookery 
and it was difficult to get good photographs. They peck at 
one when he gets too near them, and can put up quite a fight- 
in their clumsy way. 

The Falkland Islands lie five hundred and fifty miles east of 




PENGUINS IN THEIR ROOKERIES, 
FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



Punta Arenas, and we were that much out of our course. Few 
people or steamers go there, but I felt that some readers might 
care to know what these islands were like, and what the indus- 
tries were of the inhabitants of this obscure quarter of the 
globe. 



URUGUAY 

Area, 72,210 square miles, or a little less than the area of 
Indiana and Kentucky combined — Population about 1,300- 
000 — Chief resources, wheat, corn, oats, flax, fruits, vege- 
tables and meat products — Total exports and imports about 
$100,000,000 annually — Exports to United States (ion), 
$1,613,736, imports from United States $5,317,711 — Miles 
of railway 1,500 — Army, peace footing 8,000, war footing 
36,000 — Navy, war vessels of all classes 12, officers and 
men 600 — Capital, Montevideo, population 300,000. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

south America's battle-ground. 

AFTER leaving the Falkland Islands my first port was 
I Montevideo;; Uruguay, 1 ,000 miles to the north. Well do 
I Mfnember the fine early fall (A-pril', in South America) morn- 
ing in which we sighted this hustling city of 300,000 population, 
built on the sloping ground of a point of land that forms a bay 
by extending out into the Rio de la Plata. 

The river at this point is one hundred miles wide, but the 
water is of an average depth of only twenty-five feet, which 
does not permit the largest ocean-going vessels making this 
port to come up to the docks. The dock company, however, is 
spending $12,000,000 improving the harbor. 

We anchored about one mile from the wharf, after passing 
the shelter inside the breakwater sea wall, and were soon taken 
ashore in lighters. Everything reminded me of an Italian port 
— the air, sky, streets, buildings, smells and people — all were as 
if from Italy. 

It was here that Giuseppe Garibaldi made his first appear- 
ance in practical, cut-throat politics. He later succeeded in 
Italy, and is famed as a hero ; had he failed he would have gone 
down in history as a bloody anarchist ! Garibaldi came to 
Uruguay, hired to kill the man who was then President of 
Argentina — but he never got the chance. 

Montevideo has a larger percentage of Italians in her popu- 

271 



URUGUAY 



273 



lation than any other city in South America. The climate here 
is about the same as in northern Italy, and the general condi- 
tions attract the better class of emigrants from that over- 
crowded and poorly-fed country. 

The Italians feel quite at home here and do better than in 
North America, South America being a more natural country 
for emigrants from Latin countries than the United States. 
Government, church, social conditions, products and climate 
suit them better. Here there is plenty to eat, work for every- 
body, and considerable social license. 

On the evening of the day of my arrival in Montevideo I 
sailed for Buenos Aires, and spent two months in Argentina 
and Paraguay before returning to make an extended visit in 
Uruguay. There is one point on which I wish to caution my 
readers, and that is 
not to get Para- 
guay and Uruguay 
mixed, as they are 
opposites in nearly 
everything except 
the terminations of 
their names. 

Paraguay is in- 
land 1,000 miles; 
Uruguay is on the 
coast. Paraguay is 
run by the soldiers, 
who elect the Pres- 
ident; Uruguay is 
Sociali stic to a 
great extent, and 
the army and 
church have noth- 
ing to say in poli- 
t i c s. Paraguay's 
dollar is worth 8 
cents in gold ; Uru- 
guay's, $1.03 in 
gold — the only 




18 



THE MUNICIPAL PALACE, MONTEVIDEO. 
URUGUAY. 



274 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



country in the world where the United States dollar is at a 
discount of 3 per cent. Paraguay has had but one great war 
in four hundred years ; the people of Uruguay have fought 
everybody, including one another, all the time for nearly four 
hundred years. 

Uruguay, the smallest of South American republics, for 
four centuries has been the public fighting-ground of Spain, 
Portugal, England, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. When- 
ever any of the above-mentioned countries wanted to pull off a 
fight in South America they usually pitched the ring in Uruguay 
— it was so convenient. 

The armies lived off Uruguay and saved the crops and prop- 
erty at home. They never paid for anything they took or 
destroyed, and the natives of Uruguay had to fight much of the 
time to prevent all their cattle and provisions being stolen by 
the soldiers of some foreign country, who were chasing the 
soldiers of some other foreign country across this rich and 
fertile land. It didn't matter which side won or lost, the people 
of Uruguay always got the worst of it. 



^& ...... ■ : ^WHtte^'- <lJj$k £k 


! 


T I^BW> -'■ j 


1 4^ i 

2 • « ' 


"■ s&si 





A BOULEVARD OF MONTEVIDEO. 



URUGUAY 



275 




RAILWAY STATION, MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY. 



For three hundred years, from 15 10 to 1810, Spain and 
Portugal were either fighting or "exchanging diplomatic notes" 
with each other about the location of the boundary line between 
their possessions in South America. 

The territory now forming the Republic of Uruguay is so 
situated that it controls the trade of the Rio de la Plata and the 
interior of southern central South America. Buenos Aires 
would not now be the commercial capital, except for the old 
Indian wars. 

Uruguay has no desert land and the rainfall is ample. The 
vegetation and climate are about the same as Virginia, Kentucky 
and Tennessee in the United States. The Atlantic Ocean to 
the south and east changes very little in temperature in a year, 
and as the prevailing winds blow from the ocean in the summer, 
and from the north and west — or from the tropics — in winter, 
Uruguay is equally a summer and winter resort. 

The general elevation of the country is from 2,000 to 3,000 
feet above sea level, and the country is drained by many small 



276 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

rivers. Plenty of shade trees grow along the streams, furnish- 
ing sufficient wood for domestic purposes. The general climate 
makes artificial heat unnecessary for bodily comfort in the 
winter, so in the homes fires are used only for cooking ; wood 
is the principal fuel, coal being very expensive. 

The- climate, soil and easy transportation by water made 
Uruguay a prize over which Brazil and Argentina have fre- 
quently fought, since the rule of Spain and Portugal has gone 
from the Southland forever. 

The first attempted settlement on the east coast of South 
America was made by Spain in 15 15, on an island at the junc- 
tion of the Uruguay and Parana Rivers. This island, which 
now belongs to Uruguay, was called Martin Garcia, having 
been named by Juan Diaz de Solis, who was sent out by Spain 
to investigate the worth of this new country, and determine 
what part of it she would let Portugal keep. 

With ten men Solis went ashore, and in a short time one of 
the men returned carrying what arrows he couldn't pull out of 
his body as he ran; the remainder of the party did not come 
back, and those who had been left on the ship decided not to go 
out and fight the Indians in looking for the bodies of their com- 
rades ; instead, they hove anchor and returned to Spain. 

Spain decided she did not want this particular section of 
South America, for none of the expeditions sent out could hold 
it against the warlike Indians who called it their home. For 
162 years these Indians, known as the Charruas, held their own 
and beat back every advance made by white men into their ter- 
ritory. 

The Charruas were better organized than any other race of 
Indians, and therefore more effective in warfare. They were 
experts with bow and arrow, slungshot, spear and club ; were 
commanded by chiefs, and in battle obeyed orders implicitly, 
forming in columns and attacking in mass on command. They 
were nearly as far advanced in the art of war as the white man, 
and while at first they had neither horses nor guns, they soon 
took both from the Spaniards and learned to use them. They 
had the advantage of great courage, splendid physical develop- 
ment, and a complete knowledge of the country, combined with 
plenty of food and reinforcements when needed. 



278 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



The Charruas lived in huts and were highly civilized — from 
the Indian point of view. In order to preserve the high physical 
standing of their race they killed all sickly or crippled children. 
They maintained their position until 1777, when the country had 
become settled by the Portuguese to the north and east, and by 
the Spanish to the west ; the Jesuit priests had also sown dis- 
cord for so long that it was impossible that there could be peace 
for the Charruas in this position, so they were driven back, but 
never conquered. 

At this time the whole country was overrun with hundreds 
of thousands of wild horses and cattle — the multiplied product 
that had come from the stock that for many years had escaped 
when settlers had been massacred, and which had been allowed 
to roam at will by the Indians. Hunting for "big game" was 
good in Uruguay — with the Indians practically all gone. 

The half-breed Spaniard from Argentina and the half-breed 
Portuguese from Brazil crowded over the borderland of this 
"open" territory after their own or any other person's cattle 
they could "run a rope on," and by and by the country was 
settled by as mongrel a Spanish-Portuguese-Indian breed as 
ever cut a throat or set fire to a shack. Life was cheap and 
fights were plenty. 

This is the basic rural stock from which the present old 
families of Uruguay sprang. Do not expect too much of them 




THE GRAND HOTEL, MONTEVIDEO. 



URUGUAY 



279 



— you will not realize your expectation if you do. From their 
viewpoint they believe they have made wonderful improvement, 
considering how they started, and I admit that they are right. 

Of course Spain claimed all of Uruguay and a lot of Brazil, 
but in 1680 Portugal sent some ships and soldiers from Rio de 
Janeiro to the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and established a 
colony opposite Buenos Aires on the north side of the river, 
calling the town Colonia. 

The Spanish colony in Argentina, not knowing but that this 
was perfectly satisfactory to their King, sent a detachment of 
soldiers over and took Colonia. When information of the cap- 
ture reached Madrid notice was sent to withdraw the troops 
and give the settlement back to the Portuguese. For the ensu- 
ing one hundred years, except for short periods, Uruguay was 
a part of Brazil under the domination of Portugal. 

Colonia was the first white settlement of any importance in 
Uruguay ; today it is principally a pleasure resort for citizens of 
Buenos Aires. Argentina forbids bull-fighting, while Uruguay 
permits it, and Colonia has a bull ring that is principally patron- 
ized by "sports" from Buenos Aires — -just across a river 
eighty miles wide. 

One hundred miles east of Colonia existed the best natural 
harbor in the region, and in 1723 the Portuguese started a town 




VIEW OF THE PLAZA, MONTEVIDEO. 



280 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

and fort there. The Spaniards of Argentina objected, and the 
Governor of Buenos Aires captured the town and fort, but 
when the home Government heard about it he had to give it 
back. Spain and Portugal were still on peaceable terms, but 
they had a hard time controlling the actions of their subjects in 
South America. 

By 1777 the Spaniards had taken nearly all of Portugal's 
territory on the east coast up to the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 
and, to stop further aggressions, Portugal's diplomats agreed 
to make the permanent boundary between their possessions and 
those of Spain where the southern line of Brazil is now. This 
forever fixed the nationality of Uruguay as Spanish, and so it 
is to the present date. 

Now we come to the point where Uruguay, which was 
always attached to Argentina for governmental purposes, se- 
cured, not only her freedom from Spain in the great South 
American emancipation from the mother country, but also 
secured her freedom from Argentina. 

Under the treaty of 1777 Uruguay began to exist as a sepa- 
rate colony of Spain, just the same as other South American 
colonies. In 18 10 Montevideo had a population of 7,500, mostly 
Spanish, which by 1910 had increased to 300,000 of mixed races. 
In 1807 it was Spain's chief fortified city on the east coast, 
and was captured by the British in a combined land and sea 
fight. Flushed with success the victorious army then tried to 
take Buenos Aires. 

Here England was completely whipped for the first and last 
time by the Argentinians ; her entire army and navy in this part 
of the world were captured. On condition that the British 
forces be withdrawn from Argentina and Uruguay, they were 
allowed to depart — and they never came back. 

Had England been successful in this engagement the map 
of the world would have been changed. The money, enterprise 
and emigration that has gone from Great Britain to Africa, 
Australia and elsewhere would have gone to South America, 
which is a thousand per cent better country than Africa — in 
climate, soil and products. This surrender of an English 
officer left South America to the Latin races instead of turning 
it over to English-speaking people. The United States and 



URUGUAY 



28 1 




APPROACH TO EXPOSITION BUILDING, MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY. 



Argentina are the only two countries of the Western Hemi- 
sphere that have whipped Great Britain. 

Spain really had nothing to do with driving the English out 
of South America ; it was the natives of Argentina and Uru- 
guay, independent of Spanish help, who saved the day. Then 
they said to themselves : If Spain cannot protect us from foreign 
invasion, what use is the mother country ? Having decided that 
it was "no good" they struck for independence. Argentina set 
up business for herself on May 25, 1810, and on May 18, 181 1, 
Uruguay followed her example. 

The George Washington of Uruguay is Jose Artigas, who 
was a captain of guerrilla cavalry. He organized the gauchos 
and drove the Spanish Government out of Montevideo — it 
never had any hold in the country districts. Artigas never 
tried to be President, but for awhile he directed the fight that 
prevented Argentina and Brazil from capturing his little re- 
public. 

Finally he was driven into exile by the combined efforts of 



282 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



the two great republics, and he died in Paraguay in 1850. Later 
his remains were exhumed and taken to Montevideo, where 
they rest in the national pantheon. On the sarcophagus is in- 
scribed this line : "Artigas, Founder of the Uruguayan Nation." 

In 1820 Uruguay was occupied and claimed by Brazil, in 
1825 by Argentina, and in 1830 by herself, in which year she 
elected her first President. By 1840 Uruguay was quite pros- 
perous, for during that year nine hundred ocean-going ships 
entered Montevideo harbor; many of them flew the United 
States flag, now never seen on the ocean except on a warship 
or occasional private yacht ! 

Rosas, the Argentinian Dictator, took a hand in the politics 
of Uruguay and kept the country in a state of turmoil for years ; 
but for trouble at home in Argentina, Rosas possibly would have 
succeeded in annexing Uruguay to Argentina. The end came 
in 1 85 1, when he was defeated by the combined armies of 
Brazil, Uruguay and the revolutionists of Argentina. The Dic- 
tator was driven from power and Uruguay was left the "buffer 
State" between Brazil and Argentina, which it continues to be. 




AN EXPOSITION BUILDING, MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY. 



URUGUAY 283 

In i860 the cattle in Uruguay numbered over 5,000,000; 
sheep, 2,000,000; horses, 1,000,000, while the population had 
doubled in ten years. Things were too prosperous, so the two 
political parties — the blancos (whites) and the colorados (every 
person not identified with the blancos) got busy and began to 
fight for the various political offices. 

There never was and never has been any particular differ- 
ence in principle between the parties. However, most of the 
blancos live in the cities, while the colorados live in the country. 
From our viewpoint both are corrupt and dishonest; but our 
views on honesty and morals in general are different from a 
South American's. 

Since i860 the real business men of the republic have largely 
withdrawn from political strife and discord and have per- 
mitted the politicians to struggle over the offices. The result 
has been that business has gone steadily ahead, despite the fact 
that from i860 to 1902 the country has had twenty-four Presi- 
dents, of whom five or six were assassinated. The murderer 
of one President got two years — most of the other assassins 
got good political positions. 

However, conditions are much better in Uruguay now ; the 
people are more prosperous, and with prosperity comes a con- 
tentment that puts an end to political strife. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



PRESENT-DAY URUGUAY. 

1 1 ^\Z ES, I elected Dr. Claudio Williman to act as President 
X in my place for the past four years, as our constitu- 
tion forbids the election of a President to succeed himself. 

"I spent the four years in Europe, and have just returned 
and again elected myself President of Uruguay. When I have 
served out this term I will elect some one for the next and go 
to your country, the United States of North America, for 
a long visit. I will be President of Uruguay every other term 
as long as I live!" 

Thus President Batlle, who is practically Dictator of Uru- 
guay, spoke to me when I congratulated him on his re-election 
as President. He said he was the best man for the office, and 
I am not sure but that he is right. I was reminded of the 
Irishman at the wedding who inquired of a man taking a prom- 
inent part in the festivities: "An' who are you?" The reply 
was: "I am the best man!" Pat remarked, after he had been 

ejected from the 
house — "And, be- 
gorry, he was !" 

It may seem an 
unusual thing to 
say, but it is never- 
theless a fact, that 
the best man for 
President of any 
South American 
republic is the man 
who can hold down 
the job. 

THE PRESIDENT'S PALACE, MONTEVIDEO, 
URUGUAY. 

284 





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W 

w 

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Oh 

u 

5 

On 

O 
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a 

5 
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2 86 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



President Batlle, who is a big, six-foot, two-hundred-pound, 
determined man, was exceedingly frank in all he said to me. 
He is a pronounced Socialist, and states plainly that as rapidly 
as he can secure the necessary changes in the constitution he 
will give Uruguay a purely Socialistic government. 

While in Europe, during the previous four years, he had as- 
sociated with the most advanced thinkers along this line, and 
as he has the courage of his convictions, he will not permit any 
one or any thing to stop him from putting his plan into opera- 
tion. He is admitted by all to be personally honest, but some 
think him visionary. He is surrounded by a class of men who 
pretend to believe in his theories, but who are really only after 
the offices and slices of the big melons to be cut when the Gov- 
ernment begins buying up the various corporations and busi- 
ness concerns of the country, to put them under Government 

ownership. 

President. Batlle told me 
he proposed to make a Gov- 
ernment monopoly out of 
every industry of any im- 
portance in the republic, 
and that he would begin 
with the meat-packing in- 
dustry. I asked him if he 
thought the ranchers and 
farmers would be satisfied 
with the prices the Govern- 
ment would pay for their 
cattle, hogs and sheep, and 
his reply was that "they 
would have to be satisfied, 
as they would be dealing 
with themselves and would 
get all -the profit." 

"Why, do you know, Mr. 
Boyce," he said, "there are 
over 30,000,000 head of 
cattle, sheep, horses, hogs, 
mules and goats in this re- 




A BUSINESS BUILDING IN 
MONTEVIDEO. 



288 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

public; and I do not propose to allow this, the chief source 
of income of my people, to be subject to a monopoly like you 
have in the United States in your Beef Trust. Your Chicago 
packers tried to buy out our local concerns, but I told them 
that they would not be allowed to operate ; so they went on to 
Argentina." 

"How does your excellency intend to handle the. grain and 
produce of the country, on a Government monopoly basis?" I 
asked. His reply was that he proposed first to take over the 
railroads, as they were necessary in handling the products and 
supplies of the country; and that the Government would own 
the storehouses or elevators, and also the market-houses. Thus 
everything would be handled without the profit demanded by 
private capital, and forced from the public by combinations and 
"gentlemen's agreements." 

I asked him who would establish the price for cattle, grain 
and produce. He replied : "The markets of the world." I 
suggested that the trusts make the markets of the world, and 
his reply was: "Then our people will get the profits — not the 
trusts." 

There are 1,500 miles of English-built and operated railroads 
in Uruguay, and the peace of the country is largely due to the 
facilities the Government has, by reason of these rails, to reach 
quickly with troops any point where there might be a local 
revolution. As the Government has guaranteed all the bonds 
of the railroads it would be but a short step from Government 
guarantee to Government ownership. I expect this change will 
soon be made. 

The population of Uruguay is about 1,300,000; it has an 
area of 72,210 square miles, and a coast line of 625 miles. 
Geographically it is located between the thirtieth and thirty- 
fifth parallels of latitude south of the equator. The conditions 
are ideal for a thorough trial of Socialism, and the results will 
be watched with great interest by the world. 

I inquired of President Batlle what lines of business he had 
actually tried out on the basis of Government ownership, and 
he enumerated several local institutions. The one with a uni- 
versal application to all countries, however, is the insurance 
business, which the Government of Uruguay took over by buy- 






URUGUAY 



289 




VIEW IN A PARK, MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY. 



ing out the established agencies of old line companies, and 
giving employment to as many of the people working in the 
offices before, as possible. Some people in Uruguay complain 
that the Government has retained too many of the old employes. 

President Batlle claimed that he was copying the American 
railroad insurance idea, and later expected to have everybody 
insured — the same as they are in Germany, and as England 
plans to do by a law recently passed. Uruguay is handling the 
fire and accident line of insurance as well as the life and old age. 

President Batlle called my attention to the fact that the 
cheapest insurance in the United States, which is just as 
good as any other, is on the mutual plan. In my opinion, if 
there is one semi-business institution that should be operated 
by the Governments of all countries, it is insurance. 

Why the American people have stood for being browbeaten 
and skinned by the insurance companies all these years is dif- 
ficult to understand. How many thousands of people have 
paid on fire, life and accident policies for years and years, only 
to find when the fire comes, or life is nearly ended, that 
through dishonesty or failure their policy is worthless? It 
would cost less and be absolutely safe if insurance were done 
19 



290 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

by the State or National Government. Insurance, like bank- 
ing, should be backed by the Government. 

The money of Uruguay is issued by the Bank of the Repub- 
lic — owned by the Government — so every dollar in circulation 
is issued by the Government. The paper money is guaranteed 
to be redeemed at face value any time with gold — and it 
is ; you may have gold or paper, just as you wish at any bank. 
The gold dollar is worth $1.03 in United States coin, and it 
really makes an American feel cheap to find a dollar in the wide 
world worth more than our own. 

The paid-up capital of the Government bank is $11,000,000, 
while the branches of foreign banks (mostly English) located 
in Montevideo and the country towns, represent over $34,000,- 
000. The whole country is well supplied with capital. 

The ruling rate of interest is 12 per cent, but the Govern- 
ment can borrow all it wants at 5 per cent. In view of this 
great difference, President Batlle said to me : "Why should our 
people have to pay 12 per cent when the Government can get 
loans at 5 per cent, or over 100 per cent less?" I did not answer 
his question. 

The President pointed out with justified pride the results 
of Government ownership of public utilities, such as the tele- 
graph, telephone, water, sewerage and gas, and said that the 
Government was not granting any more franchises for electric 
light and street cars. 

While I was in Montevideo the employes of the privately- 
owned street car line struck and closed down the entire system. 
In addition they forbade any one, working for wages or salary 
for any concern, going to work for three days. The whole 
city was closed up tight. I asked President Batlle why he per- 
mitted this when he could have stopped it. He replied : "To 
let the people see how strong they, the people, are ; Socialism 
is only the people acting for themselves." 

The President was quite proud of the fact that under his 
administration the expenses of the Government had never ex- 
ceeded the income. This is the only exception to the opposite 
procedure in South America that I know of. It was during his 
former administration that the rate of interest for Government 
loans was reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. No wonder 



URUGUAY 



291 



he feels certain the people will elect him President every chance 
they get. 

The exports and imports are nearly $50,000,000 a year each 
way. With $100,000,000 to handle, and that cared for as care- 
fully, if not more so, than is the Government's money of the 
United States, Uruguay is pretty well off. 

One thing that is difficult to understand is how Socialism has 
secured such a hold on the minds of the uneducated people of 
Uruguay ; for it must be admitted that in the matter of general 
education few countries in South America are so backward. 
The low standard of education in the country districts may be 
accounted for by the people being so scattered that it is difficult 
to locate a school that would accommodate many of the chil- 
dren. In riding over the country my observation was that not 
one in five of the people I met could read or write. 

The Government has recently established a university 
which has at present eighty professors and over 800 students. 




THE UNIVERSITY, MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY 



URUGUAY 293 

The best sign I observed for the future of Uruguay is that the 
young men are studying agriculture, horticulture and cattle 
raising, and not to become doctors of law, medicine, and poli- 
tics, as is the case in Argentina and Chile. 

Uruguay is the best all-round country for everything in 
South America. Wheat, corn, oats, flax, fruits and vegetables 
of all kinds grow any place, and in many localities two crops 
of garden vegetables are produced each year. 

Owing to the well-drained country and temperate climate, 
cattle, sheep and horses are particularly free from disease and 
feed outdoors the year round. 

Over 1,000,000 head of cattle are killed in Uruguay annu- 
ally by the Liebig's Extract of Meat Company. This concern, 
although originally a German corporation, is now controlled by 
English capital. President Batlle told me he had about com- 
pleted a plan for taking over this company's business in Uru- 
guay and operating it as a State monopoly, with which he would 
include the cold storage plants, potted beef, and potted tongue 
concerns. 

The United States has less than 10 per cent of the foreign 
trade with Uruguay, and this is the American business man's 
fault. However, for some years back we have been sending 
better men to represent our country and the result will be ap- 
parent soon. 

General O'Brien, as our representative to Uruguay, was an 
able and competent minister, but he soon saw an opportunity 
to make money in building a railroad with American capital, 
engineers and material, and is pushing his road to completion. 
No doubt the Government will take the road over when it is 
completed, but in the meantime it makes an outlet for Ameri- 
can capital, material and labor. 

Minister Morgan, a very able representative of Uncle Sam, 
succeeded General O'Brien, but he has recently been appointed 
ambassador to Brazil, which is considered quite a promotion. 
While in Uruguay Mr. Morgan was the most popular of for- 
eign representatives, and in street parades the Stars and Stripes 
were frequently carried in his honor, and three cheers were al- 
ways given when the parades passed the United States legation 
building. The present minister from the United States to 



URUGUAY 



^95 



Uruguay is Nicolay Grevstad. He is an Illinois man, having 
formerly been editor-in-chief of the Daily Skandinaven of 
Chicago. 

While the Uruguayan Congress elects the President of the 
republic, I imagine it would be rather difficult for a man to 
secure a seat in the Congress if he were not an adherent of 
President Batlle. 

I asked the President if he intended to separate the 
Church from the State and he replied : "Our constitution recog- 
nizes the Catholic Church, but I am now having the constitution 




THE CATHEDRAL, MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY. 



changed so we can drop any church, Catholic or Protestant, 
from having any place in our Government affairs. I do not 
believe in churches." 

I was told that President Batlle refuses to allow any officer 
of the army or navy to go into any church with his uniform on, 
or any employe of the Government to attend any religious func- 
tion as a representative of the Government. 

A great reform advocated by the President is the legal 
recognition of illegitimate children in Uruguay. Thirty-three 



296 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

per cent of the children born there are in this class, and at pres- 
ent they have no legal standing. 

If I have succeeded in awakening the reader's interest in 
Uruguay, so that he or she will watch the results of the experi- 
ment being tried in that country, I will have accomplished some- 
thing to repay me for the many miles of travel and days of 
hard work required to gain the information given here. 

Socialism, like Masonry, has many degrees. Some people 
never get beyond the Blue Lodge, others take the thirty-two 
degrees, and a very few reach the thirty-third. Watch Uru- 
guay! How long will her dollar be worth $1.03 in United 
States gold? That is an interesting question and worth keep- 
ing in mind. 




■>n-<°N *v»m v i 



COMMERCIAL M 







t3°° 



§!C 





'/?»"S 'V")!l t "l 



>'■ SOUTH AMERICA. 



\ 



ARGENTINA 



Area, 1,135,840 square miles, or about five and a half times as 
large as France, or nearly one-third the size of the entire 
United States — Extends from the summit of the Andes to 
the Atlantic Ocean and from latitude 22 degrees south to 
56 degrees south— Population (19 11), about 7,500,000, 
including 30,000 Indians — Chief products, wheat, corn, 
sheep, wool, cattle, zuine, meats — Total exports (1910), 
$359,584,000; imports, $339,459,000 — Exports to United 
States (1911), $29,090,732; imports from United States, 
$42,918,511 — Miles of railway, 15,000, railroad investment 
approximately $450,000,000 — Army, peace footing, 20,000, 
war footing, 200,000; navy, 30 ships, 5,000 officers 
men — Capital, Buenos Aires, population, 1,250,000. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ARGENTINA. 

\ LITTLE girl from a country town, once upon a time, 
came to Chicago with her father to see the city. In the 
course of their wanderings up and down the streets, lined with 
towering buildings, they came to the corner of State and Madi- 
son streets, where 
more people pass 
in one day than at 
any other street 
corner in the 
world. After stand- 
ing there for what 
seemed a long time 
to the little maid 
she said : "Papa, 
let's sit down till 
the crowd goes 
by." 

After four 
months on the 




UNITED STATES LEGATION, BUENOS AIRES. 
297 



298 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



West Coast of South America, I could almost believe I was 
back in Chicago at the corner of State and Madison streets 
when I finally stood in the busy section of Buenos Aires. But 
one glance was sufficient to tell me the throng was a crowd 
that surged to and fro all day — so I didn't stop to wait for it 
to go by. 

Buenos Aires is one of the most wonderful cities in the 
world — and I have "been about considerable" and have seen 
some other wonderful cities. In this chapter I can do no more 
than set down some of my first impressions of this magnificent 
city. Of Argentina itself there needs must be some rather 
extended paragraphs, for Argentina is a very splendid country, 
and it is of mighty moment in the world's evolution, and of 
supreme importance to the people of the United States. 

You perhaps remember when we were in Chicago together 
at the World's Fair, how the hustle and push of the people 
who dwell in the W T indy City impressed us? Well, Buenos 
Aires is just like Chicago. 

You remember when we were in New York together at the 
horse show, and took in Broadway, Wall street, Fifth avenue, 
the big restaurants, hotels and theaters ; also saw the resi- 




A GENERAL VIEW OF BUJ 



ARGENTINA 



299 



dences, banks and office buildings of the billionaires? Well, 
Buenos Aires is just like New York in that way. 

Again, you remember, perhaps, when we were in Berlin, 
Germany, and we remarked about the wonderful growth and 
improvement since the last time we were there ; how clean the 
streets were — how solid and substantial the buildings looked, 
and how well kept the parks were ? Well, Buenos Aires looks 
like Berlin. 

You remember what a difference we noticed between the 
people of Berlin and Paris ; how in Paris everybody seemed 
to live only for today, how gay, well-dressed and light-hearted 
they were ; how everybody seemed to be sitting on the sidewalk, 
outside some restaurant, under an awning, smoking cigarettes 
and having coffee or soft drinks ; what big hats the handsome 
women wore ; how the boulevards and avenues were crowded 
with automobiles and carriages, and everybody went to the 
races ? Well, that's the way they do in Buenos Aires. 

You remember when we went to Washington to try to get 
Jim that appointment, how the Capitol and public buildings im- 
pressed us with the wealth and solidity of the Government ; 
how beautiful, wide Pennsylvania avenue made us wish that 




LOOKING TOWARD THE SOUTH. 



300 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




THE CUSTOM HOUSE, BUENOS AIRES. 



all streets were like it ; how important our Congressman 
seemed, how busy he appeared, and how he shook hands with 
us and inquired about "the folks at home?" Well, Buenos 
Aires is the capital of a country as big as all of the United 
States east of the Mississippi River, and one feels as though he 
were in Washington — only the city is as big as Chicago at the 
time of the World's Fair, having 1,250,000 population. 

To revert for a moment, I will mention that the approach to 
this great city is very impressive. Leaving Montevideo, Uru- 
guay, having arrived there from the Falkland Islands, it took 
all night to cross the Rio de la Plata — think of a river over one 
hundred miles wide ! The big side-wheeler boat was packed, 
every berth being taken. At seven o'clock in the morning we 
were within one mile of the docks of Buenos Aires, and as we 
drew near, my Peruvian photographer, who had never seen a 
big city, forgot his camera and stood with mouth wide open, 
completely forgetting to take a panorama of the city. However, 



ARGENTINA 



301 



it was a trifle too early in the morning to get a good photo- 
graph. 

Through the request of the American legation at Buenos 
Aires our baggage, photographic material and eight cameras 
were admitted by the customs officials without our trunks 
being opened. 

When my photographer from the West Coast saw a new 
thirteen-story building, partly finished, he collapsed and 
thought he was dreaming or couldn't see straight — and when 
we told him there was a forty-five-story building in New York 
and a thirty-story structure in Chicago, he — well, you can 
fancy what he thought of our veracity ! I admit that I was 
somewhat surprised myself when I saw the towering structures 
of Buenos Aires, as I had expected nothing of the sort. 






f" 




I'ffl'IM^t 



THE PLAZA HOTEL, BUENOS AIRES. 



302 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

We had cabled for rooms at the Plaza Hotel, and on ar- 
rival there I was again surprised ; the hotel, finished two years 
ago, is owned by the Ritz-Carleton Company of London, Eng- 
land, which owns about twenty big hotels the world over, one 
even in Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Here I found a clerk from the Carleton Hotel in London, 
and discovered that the prices asked for rooms would make a 
New York hotel clerk blush — and that would be "going some," 
one must admit. Thirty dollars a day for three small rooms 
and bath, meals extra, zvas the price charged me. I learned 
afterward that I had been given a discount of twenty-five per 
cent in the bargain, for the reason that I was a "newspaper 
man." I noted that a hat, which would cost five dollars in the 
United States, would cost seventeen dollars in Buenos Aires, 
and that Havana cigars were from sixty cents to one dollar 
each. 

After breakfast the first morning, finding I had some 
money left, I took a cab at two dollars an hour — the cheapest 
thing in the city — and looked the place over for several hours. 
It was Sunday morning and the streets were so deserted I got 
a good clear look at everything on the outside. About noon, 
however, the people began to come out and they came in 
throngs. 

It was April, but April in South America is equal to Octo- 
ber in North America. Buenos Aires is situated at latitude 35 
degrees south, but owing to the Atlantic Ocean the temperature 
does not change much. It seldom gets colder than 51 degrees 
above zero in the winter, nor hotter than 80 in the summer. 
The air is fine (Buenos Aires is Spanish for "good airs"), and 
the sky is nearly always clear. 

It occurred to me that inasmuch as Sunday was the big 
weekly holiday and everybody was on pleasure bent, I would 
have an opportunity to see how the people of Buenos Aires 
amused themselves. 

One thing I was pleased to observe— there was no drinking. 
No liquor is sold in this city on Sunday or any holiday — and 
there are twenty church holidays during the year. The nation- 
alities are represented as follows : First, Spanish ; second, Ital- 
ian ; third, English ; fourth, German. There are only five hun- 



ARGENTINA 



303 



dred Americans in the entire republic. The amusements are 
much the same as in any great city. 

Driving through Palermo Park, we came to a handsome 
building, and my cochero (cabby) pointed it out as the Palais 
de Glace (the Palace of Ice), and then I realized how very up- 
to-date the Buenos Aireans really are. Here, where it never 
freezes and nature never forms ice, they make it electrically. 

It looked odd to see skates for sale in the windows of the 
hardware stores, considering the climate. The ice skating 
rink covered half an acre, and while watching the people cir- 
cling round and cutting figure eights, all muffled up in sweaters 
and tam-o'-shanters, one could almost believe he was at home, 
or up in Canada in the winter, watching the healthful winter 
sports on the ice. 

The Japanese Gardens are near the Ice Palace, and they 
resemble a miniature "Coney Island," "Midway," or "Great 
White Way," being managed by a German who was at one 
time an assistant manager of the "White City" in Chicago. 
Here one can ride on a scenic railway, take a flight in a station- 
ary airship, shoot the chutes, bump the bumps, or have one's 
fortune told, just as in the amusement parks of the United 
States. 

I went into the big open- 
air hippodrome, or theater, 
in the middle of the gar- 
dens, and saw a very good 
circus. The animals, be- 
spangled performers and 
sawdust were all there, but 
I missed the funny clowns 
and small boy peddling 
peanuts and pink lemon- 
ade ; without these adjuncts 
a circus is not complete to 
a North American. 

The Zoological Park is a 
very popular place on Sun- 
days. One pays five cents 
to enter it, and near the 

MINIATURE RAILWAY IN ZOOLOGI- 
CAL PARK, BUENOS AIRES. 




304 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



entrance is the starting sta- 
tion of a miniature railway 
on which, for an additional 
five cents, you may ride all 
around and through the 
park. One car will seat 
eight persons, and I discov- 
ered a family consisting of 
father, mother and four- 
t e e n children occupying 
two entire cars. Roosevel- 
tian families are not un- 
usual in Argentina, and are 
very "handy" in settling up 
a new country. 

The Zoological Park is a 
Govern ment institution, 
and the money received 
from entrance fees and 
riding on the miniature 
railway just about pays the 
expenses of maintenance. 

I stopped at a dancing 
pavilion hoping to see the 

tango, a famous dance of the republic, but was disappointed, 
as they only dance it now in the country towns. It is some- 
thing like the Apache waltz, so popular on the vaudeville stage 
of the United States. The tango is always put on in an in- 
closed space, and the men are required to leave their pistols 

and knives at the 
entrance before they 
go on the floor, as it 
intensely excites the 
dancers, and often 
ends in a free-for- 
all fight, and at some 
of these parties 
a row of automobiles outside of race three or four have 
track, buenos aires. been killed. 




FRONT VIEW OF THE JOCKEY CLUB, 
BUENOS AIRES. 





20 



SCENES AT THE JOCKEY CLUB RACES, BUENOS AIRES. 



306 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




TYPES OF BUENOS AIRES PEOPLE LEAVING THE CLUB. 



The people of Buenos Aires and Argentina are enthusiastic 
lovers of horse-racing. It is really the national sport, which is 
very natural in a country that raises millions of horses and 
cattle. Through Mr. Bliss, the charge d'affaires of the United 
States legation, I had received from the president of the 
Jockey Club a card — not only to the social club in the city, but 
one entitling me to the privileges of a member on the race 
course. 

This track is one of the finest in any country, and the club 
house on the grounds and the grandstands are handsome build- 
ings, being well constructed of stone, concrete and tile. There 
were about 18,000 people at the races on the day I attended, 
some with happy faces and a roll of money in their "jeans," 
others with a dejected air and their hands sunk deep into their 
empty pockets, hunting for a possible last nickel to pay their 
trolley fare back to the city. 

I arrived in time to see the principal race of the day, the 
purse for the winner being $8,000. The race was a good one 
from start to finish, and the crowd was wildly enthusiastic. 
The people were orderly and not "sporty" looking. The 



ARGENTINA 



307 



ladies were handsome and elegantly gowned — much the same 
as you would see at the Paris races. The betting is on the 
Paris Mutuel plan, there being no "bookies." Ninety per cent 
of the bets are paid to the winners and ten per cent to the Gov- 
ernment ; the races are said to be "on the square." 

I dropped into a vaudeville theater one evening, where the 
acts were in French, Spanish and Italian. One female per- 
former gave me a thrill, for she imitated cleverly our own 
Yankee Doodle Dandy — George Cohan. When an actor did 
not please, the audience barked like dogs, instead of hissing and 




MR. BOYCE LEAVING THE JOCKEY CLUB RACES IN 
BUENOS AIRES. 



cat-calling as American audiences sometimes do. It sounded 
like a dog show. 

Some of the fashionable restaurants in Buenos Aires sub- 
due the lights at the end of each course, and while you "keep 
your hand on your pocketbook" you can watch a moving pic- 
ture show at the end of the room. The precaution of hanging 
onto your pocketbook is purely unnecessary, for when you 
have paid your check there is nothing left in your purse, and 
they might as well take its contents one way as another. 

In most Latin-American countries bull-fighting and cock- 



308 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

fighting are the principal sports, but Argentina forbids them. 
Since Rugby football was introduced into the country by my 
friend, Mr. Edward T. Mulhall, the proprietor of two daily 
newspapers in Buenos Aires, it has become a national game, 
being played all over the republic. 

In closing this introductory chapter on Argentina, I would 
like to relate a bit of picturesque history that was told me by 
the captain of the ship on which I came from Montevideo to 
Buenos Aires. It ran as follows : 

Fifty years ago an American named Captain Smylie carried 
on a coast trade with his schooner, the Golden Rod, between 
the Falkland Islands and Montevideo, and many stories are 
told of this old pirate's adventures and depredations. He 
always put into Rio Negro, Argentina, for provisions and 
water on his runs up and down the coast, and he and the 
Governor of Rio Negro became great cronies. One night they 
quarreled over a division of spoils from a wrecked whaling 
vessel, and there was a free fight between the Governor and 
his soldiers on one side and Captain Smylie and his men on 
the other. The American and his men were badly beaten, 
being greatly outnumbered, and Smylie was lashed to a post in 
the middle of the Plaza and beaten with the flat of the 
Governor's sword until the blood ran. His men were all put 
in jail, and he himself put aboard his ship in a helpless condi- 
tion. In a few days his men were released and the Governor 
gave Smylie orders never to put into Rio Negro again. Smylie 
had an old cannon on his forward deck, and before leaving 
port managed to put a few holes through the Governor's house. 
For many months Captain Smylie heeded the Governor's warn- 
ing and did not go near his port, but all the time he was 
planning revenge. Finally one morning he appeared in Rio 
Negro with the Golden Rod, and sent a message to the Governor 
begging that he would let -bygones be bygones, and asking 
him to come out to the ship and accept as a present some fine 
pictures and other things he had recently taken from a wrecked 
ship. 

The Governor accepted the invitation, and went unaccom- 
panied to the ship. Captain Smylie greeted him at the gang- 
way with a glad (right) hand and with the left grabbed him by 



ARGENTINA 309 

the throat and sang out to his men to hoist anchor and get 
away. He turned to the Governor and in a voice quivering 
with passion cried: "I've got you at last, you hound! Got 
you under the American flag, and as I am the only American 
officer in these parts I'll attend to your punishment myself ! 
Get down into the galley and clean the dishes ! You'll sail 
with me, my hearty, to Cape Horn and back, and you will 
serve as my mozo (servant). If you do your work well I'll 
land you back in Rio Negro a better man in five or six months." 
The Governor had no choice but to submit, and the story 
goes that his duties were made so arduous and mean that he 
sickened and died before he reached Cape Horn. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
Argentina's national and commercial capital. 

A WELL-KNOWN Federal official was strolling down a 
certain celebrated avenue of the capital of the United 
States when he encountered a very small boy who was crying 
bitterly. 

"What is the matter with that child ?" demanded the official 
of the woman who had the small boy in charge. "Is he ill ?" 

"He ain't exactly ill," replied the woman, "but, between 
you and me, sir, no stomach ain't goin' to stand fourteen 
doughnuts." 

Similarly, I confess, that it rather strained the mentality to 
attempt the assimilation of Buenos Aires in the quantities given 




PANORAMIC VIEW OF 



310 



ARGENTINA 



3ii 



us. Buenos Aires is rich in its constituent elements and "rich- 
ness" is always cloying. 

Buenos Aires is the capital of the Argentine Republic, and 
it may be called the commercial capital of South America. It 
exports more wheat and chilled meat than New York; pub- 
lishes more statistics and educational works than Boston; re- 
ceives and distributes more immigrants than Chicago ; has the 
largest and handsomest opera house in the world ; has a death 
rate lower than any big city in the United States ; has the cli- 
mate of California, and is practically a sealed book to any 
North American who has never been there. 

Big battleships and ocean greyhounds cannot come up the 
Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires. Notwithstanding its enor- 
mous exports, this city is a river port. But in that same disad- 
vantage lies its greatest advantage and protection, and its 
superiority over any great exporting metropolis elsewhere. 
The Rio de la Plata varies in width from thirty to one hundred 
miles. It has a roomy channel, but its depth — only twenty- 
three feet — will not permit deep-draft vessels an approach to the 
city. Thus it can never be taken by a modern navy, and has 




i-FRONT OF BUENOS AIRES. 



312 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



only to fear the time when aeroplanes shall be an effective 
adjunct of a hostile navy. The Rio de la Plata is one of the 
world's greatest rivers. With its tributaries, including the 
Parana and Uruguay Rivers, it drains an area of over 2,000,000 
square miles, a somewhat larger territory than is drained by 
the Mississippi. 

The approach to Buenos Aires from the Rio de la Plata 
would at once impress a Chicagoan, or an American living in a 
grain-growing or stock-raising region, that the question of 
export and import transportation had been solved. 

Immense lengths of docks, lined with Government store- 
houses, grain elevators, cattle pens, cold storage plants, railroad 
freight terminals, and thousands of freight cars from the 15,- 
000 miles of railroads that cover the republic, meet the eye in 
one long, busy panorama. The docks where one lands are 
not miles away from the city. They are, you might say, in the 
center, being only six blocks from the stock exchange, banks 
and big hotels. When the city is first seen it gives the visitor 
the idea that the people must be moving continually. They 
are ; but nobody is moving out — they are all moving in. 

Buildings of all kinds, when I was there, were being run 
up with great rapidity ; that is to say, with great rapidity for a 
Latin country, where the motto is manana (tomorrow). With- 



in the last five years, 
been built twenty-five 
now running at full capac- 
are absolutely up-to-date in 
are being constructed to 




however, there have 
large hotels. They are 
ity, and most of them 
every respect, and more 
meet the demand. 







THE HUGE CAPITOL AND CONGRESSIONAL BUILDING, BUENOS 

AIRES, NOT ENTIRELY COMPLETED. IT COVERS 

FOUR ENTIRE BLOCKS, 



3H 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




ANOTHER VIEW OF THE GREAT COLON THEATER, BUENOS AIRES. 



A new congressional or capitol building, occupying four 
complete blocks, is almost completed. Words will not describe 
the magnificence of this structure. The new Colon theater — 
the grand opera house — takes up an entire square, and was 
erected by funds realized from the issuing of bonds by the city. 
The new School of Medicine, a library building, with here 
and there a modern skyscraper were all pushing their heads 
upward. 

All of the material used in construction has to be imported 
from abroad, the steel, lumber, and some cement coming from 
the United States, together with tools and machinery. Con- 
siderable more would come from Uncle Sam's domain if we 
would only try to please our possible customers, pack and ship 
for export and learn to talk Spanish. Terms are good, and 
credit sound in Buenos Aires. 

I found the streets uncomfortably crowded at all times. 



ARGENTINA 



315 



The sidewalks are fearfully, and to the stranger, dangerously 
narrow, being only from three to four feet in width. The 
whizzing, clanging electric cars, often wider than the street 
space allotted to them, run On tracks about a foot from the 
curbstone, so that a passenger may mount from the pavement. 
A mother and two daughters, when out shopping, walk 
along Indian file, so they may pass pedestrians from the oppo- 
site direction ; the younger daughter first, her sister following, 
while the watchful mother brings up the rear. Buenos Aires is 




THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, BUENOS AIRES. 



not a quiet city, although no streets are paved with cobble- 
stones, all being laid with wood or asphalt. The continuous, 
mixed-up, and badly-handled traffic contributes in no small de- 
gree to the tumult, as do the gongs of the cars, the shouts of 
the "cabbies" and the yells of the newsboys. 

The shop windows are very attractive and seem to combine 
all that is best in American, English or French products and 
styles. When one stops on the sidewalk to look into a window 
persons passing by have to take to the street, as only two people 



ARGENTINA 



317 



can stand abreast. 
The narrow 
streets, however, 
have two advant- 
ages — they cost lit- 
tle to maintain and 
they afford shade ; 
furthermore, they 
make such high 
buildings as are 
seen in New York 
and Chicago im- 
possible, thus 
spreading out the 
city. 

I obs e r v e d a 
very curious thing 
about the people 
and their choice of 
streets when shop- 
ping. Not long 
since the munici- 
pality tore down 
several valu able 
buildings and 
opened a wide 
street, the Avenida 
de Mayo, in the 

center of the city, planting trees along its sides, from Plaza 
de Mayo, the principal square, to the site of the new con- 
gressional building, the same as Pennsylvania avenue in 
Washington, D. C, only much better improved. Its side- 
walks are wide, roomy, and well-paved, the roadway is 
asphalted and there are shelter islands for timid crossers. It 
is an ideal street for shops, stores and general promenade, but 
the people will not shop on it, and it is only used by strangers 
for promenades, while Florida avenue, a much narrower 
street, with smaller houses, stores and sidewalks, is so crowded 
during the day that by police regulations all traffic vehicles are 




A PRIVATE RESIDENCE IN BUENOS AIRES. 



3i8 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



excluded from five p. m. to seven-thirty p. m., there being no 
street cars on this thoroughfare. 

In the preceding chapter I mentioned the matter of the tem- 
perance of the people and the absence of drunkenness, but there 
are many saloons and restaurants all over the city. They are 
well patronized, yet drunkenness is scarcely known. If you 
see an intoxicated man, it is a foregone conclusion that he is a 
foreigner ; you have three guesses as to his nationality and you 




VIEW OF THE PLAZA VICTORIA AN 



cannot lose — first, English ; second, German ; third, American. 

Notwithstanding the excellent street railway system in 
Buenos Aires the present congestion of traffic and lack of trans- 
portation are serious problems for both the people and the 
State. The tramway of the city is under control of one gigantic 
corporation, called the Anglo-Argentine Tramway Company, 
an English company with a paid-up capital of $85,000,000 gold. 

Recently the tramway company and a steam railroad com- 



ARGENTINA 



319 



pany acquired a concession to construct tunnels and subways 
under the city. Work has already begun on this project, and 
in three years, six of the crowded thoroughfares will have no 
surface cars on them at all. In order to get their concession 
they had to vacate some of the congested streets of surface 
cars — not a bad trade for the city. How many of our alder- 
men would think of forcing a corporation to do anything for 
the people? The fare is five cents, United States money, 





NIDA DE MAYO, BUENOS AIRES. 



and the company pays twelve per cent dividends. 

There are thousands of automobiles, but most of them are 
privately owned. The meters on the motor cars for hire here 
run as fast as in New York, where it costs four dollars an hour 
"to ride" in a motor taxi when it is "dead." There are also 
thousands of handsome turnouts, horses and carriages being 
seen everywhere, and especially in the afternoons in the parks 
and on the boulevards "when the world and his girl take a 



320 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



ride." The country roads 
are impossible for motor 
cars, hence the horse is still 
king in Argentina. 

The native is perhaps the 
most luxurious spendthrift 
in the world — and he has 
the price. His father, as an 
immigrant, made little 
money, but the property he 
acquired advanced in value 
rapidly while he skimped 
and saved. The son, born 
in this country, receives an 
education second to none; 
his position is infinitely su- 
perior to his father's and 
he has to prove it continu- 
ally. Prices in Buenos 
Aires are the highest of 
any city in the world. 
Nothing seems cheap and 
plentiful but the dirty pa- 
per money. I never re- 
alized before why it was 
called "filthy lucre." 

This brings me to the 

monetary system of the 

country. Argentina is the 

only country in the world, not on a gold basis, where you can 

exchange your paper money — there is no silver — for a fixed 

price in gold at any time, and this price is fixed by law. 

There is a unit of one dollar gold, there is another unit of 
national currency of one dollar paper (un peso). A paper 
dollar is not worth a gold dollar and never will be, because the 
law says it is worth only forty-four cents in gold, and that is 
all you take it for, and it is convertible into gold at that value 
any time. But nobody wants gold, and thousands of Argen- 
tinians would not recognize gold or take it if offered to them. 




TYPES OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN 
SEEN IN BUENOS AIRES. 



ARGENTINA 



321 



The Government has one large bank, the Caja de Covercion, 
where there is $200,000,000 in gold. This vast hoard of the 
yellow metal is to secure the paper money in circulation. 

The appearance of prosperity in Buenos Aires is undeniable, 
yet many, especially foreigners, are very poorly paid and live a 
hand-to-mouth existence. An American, who cannot speak 
the language, without capital and nothing to sell but his labor, 
had better stay at home. If he can speak Spanish, which 




THE COURTS OF JUSTICE, BUENOS AIRES. 



should be taught in all our schools — and will be some day — he 
can find plenty to do at a profit. 

Mechanics of all kinds obtain work with ease, but in the 
city they find it difficult to save on account of the extraordi- 
nary high cost of living. Such men as policemen, street 
cleaners, firemen, and other city employes, are disgracefully 
underpaid — a policeman gets only $35 gold a month. The 
effect of this is shown in the quality of men who apply for the 
position. 

There is a general tendency toward extravagance among 
21 



322 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




THE PALACE OF THE FINE ARTS, BUENOS AIRES. 



all classes. The tendency is to spend in all directions. Of 
course, the enormous prosperity is the cause of this. 

Although progressive in every way in things commercial, 
the real citizen of this country is still quite conservative as re- 
gards his social relations, family life and what he considers 
his code of honor. He will entertain you freely at his club 
and take you to the theater, but when he invites you to his 
home he believes in you, and has conferred the greatest honor 
he can give. 

The duello is of almost daily occurrence, so much so that 
the papers either ignore it, or in the case of very prominent 
parties, only allude to it. Frequently the duels are fatal. In 
no case does the Government interfere, although it is contrary 
to law ; but it is a "dead law," public opinion being against its 
enforcement. 



ARGENTINA 



323 



A friend of mine in 
Buenos Aires, a news- 
paper man, who has 
fought many duels, was 
challenged while I was 
there. He accepted, se- 
lected pistols — he is a 
dead shot — but after due 
consideration the man 
who challenged him con- 
cluded that the reflection 
was only on his business 
and not his personal 
honor, hence there was 
nothing to fight about. 
Probably a life was 
saved, but I lost an op- 
portunity to see a first- 
class affair of honor set- 





MONUMENT TO THE INDEPEND- 
ENCE OF ARGENTINA, 
BUENOS AIRES. 



tied by the rules of the 
code. 

Long before the city of 
Buenos Aires reached 
1,000,000 inhabitants the 
question of the food supply 
for its citizens became a 
problem. There were 
markets, to be sure, but the 
enormous freights and the 
number of hands through 
which every article for con- 
sumption had to pass, 
drove prices up to several 
hundred per cent greater 
than when the goods left 
the hands of the producer. 
In addition to that, supplies 
of provisions and vegeta- 



THE CITY WATER RESERVOIR OF 
BUENOS AIRES, ITS WIN- 
DOWS ARE "MAKE BE- 
LIEVE," NOT REAL. 



ARGENTINA 325 




SILO SHAPED CONCRETE GRAIN ELEVATOR, BUENOS AIRES. 

bles were intermittent and not at all reliable. Of late years, 
however, new markets have been built and a better system of 
bringing the produce right to the consumer has been organ- 
ized. Still, while meat is cheap, the prices of vegetables and 
fruits are enormous. 

Within twenty-five miles of Buenos Aires there is a natural 
fruit garden, on the delta formed by the many streams at the 
mouth of the river Parana, yet the delivery of the fruit raised 
in this locality has been so manipulated by various rings that 
the consumer pays about 1,000 per cent more than the orchard 
man receives. Recently the mayor of Buenos Aires inaugu- 
rated a system of what are known as free markets, which were 
centrally located, and which met with instantaneous success. 

The press of Buenos Aires is a complete surprise to any 
visitor in the city. Strange as it may appear, the oldest daily 
newspaper in Buenos Aires, in fact in the whole of South 
America — that never missed a number — is printed in English. 
It is known as the Buenos Aires Standard and is just fifty 
years old. 

For many years the Prensa has held the proud position of 
being the popular newspaper of the country, and is yet re- 



326 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



garded as "the old standby." Next to it comes the Nation, a 
higher class paper with a smaller circulation. 

There are about five hundred different publications in Ar- 
gentina, of which one hundred and six are in Buenos Aires. 
The Herald is a very good English daily. About three years 
ago the Mulhall Brothers, who are the owners of the Standard, 
started a daily paper called La Argentina, which was initiated 
on absolutely American methods. It was an instantaneous 
success, and has the largest circulation of any newspaper in 
South America. The price of the paper was made an even five 
cents, Argentina money (two cents in United States money), 
which is the smallest nickel coin in circulation. What it has 
accomplished is due to the energy, enterprise and courage of 
its owner, Mr. Edward T. Mulhall. Several challenges and 
one or two duels have been the result of this new journalism. 

Buenos Aires is well provided with large and soundly in- 
stituted banks. Of their reliability there can be no question, 




A GLIMPSE OF THE BANKING DISTRICT, BUENOS AIRES. 



ARGENTINA 327 

but as to the system of banking, so far as it affects the cori- 
venience of the public, there is ample room for criticism. 

There are four large English banks, one Spanish, two Ital- 
ian, two French, two German, and others of native capital. The 
London and River Plata bank, and the London and Brazilian 
bank, have each a subscribed capital of $10,000,000, and pay 
a regular annual dividend of twenty and fifteen per cent re- 
spectively. The Bank of the Nation, the national institution, 
has a subscribed and deposited capital of $35,697,600; it is the 
only bank which issues, or rather has issued in the past, na- 
tional currency. 

With the growing importance of the Argentine Republic 
as a country, the business of these banks is naturally very 
profitable. Almost every man in business is carrying on his 
affairs with money borrowed from banks. He accepts paper 
and discounts it ; he also has an overdraft, which in many cases 
exceeds his actual capital. But this credit is easily obtained 
where it is seen that he is actively engaged in doing business. 

One of the most powerful institutions, and an American 
one at that, is the Young Men's Christian Association. The 
management of it is American all through, but it is conducted 
equally for the benefit of English and American residents. 
There are supposed to be about 30,000 English-speaking people 
in the city of Buenos Aires, although there are times when an 
American, who speaks no Spanish, will hardly believe it — he 
has such trouble in finding somebody who can understand him. 

The Stock Exchange of Buenos Aires, otherwise known as 
the Bolsa, is still no more than in its infancy; it is a weak, 
puling baby at that. As a matter of fact there are no real 
trusts in Argentina and few industrial securities in which to 
gamble. 

In the matter of schools, not only Buenos Aires, but the 
whole country, as far as the cities are concerned, can boast of 
being well provided, the educational system being splendidly 
carried out, and the children of foreign immigrants also being 
provided for in the educational institutions. 

The churches of Buenos Aires may be described, for the 
most part, as of the plain and useful variety ; they are neither 
startling nor attractive in architecture, except the cathedral. 



ARGENTINA 



329 



which is unusual in construction and one of the show places 
of the city. Some of them are very old, but they are built 
upon the same simple, severe plan. 

From an historical point of view there is an interesting 
church in Calle (street) Defensa. The Argentinians claim 
that they and the United States are the only countries that ever 
whipped the English, and this old church figures in the history 
of their affair with England. A body of England's troops once 
attempted to take Buenos Aires, and the city was bombarded. 
The church on Calle Defensa was partly demolished, and as a 
memento of this the cannon balls — nice, smooth, round affairs 
— were set in the plaster of the tower of the church when it 
was rebuilt, and they look very curious as they are seen pro- 
jecting from the imitation stone work. 

There are no churchyards to the churches, the dead being 
buried in cemeteries. Of these, the two principal burying- 
grounds in the city are the Recoleta and the Chacarita. The 
former is perhaps the most crowded cemetery anywhere, being 
comparatively small, and as a result, it is absolutely jammed 




ENTRANCE TO RECOLETA CEMETERY, BUENOS AIRES. 




VIEWS IN RECOLETA CEMETERY, BUENOS AIRES. 



ARGENTINA 



33i 



with costly and imposing vaults and tombs, and many of these 
are open so that the entire interior may be seen. 

On All Saints' Day an extraordinary sight may be witnessed 
in the Recoleta, as thousands of candles are burned on that 
day in the vaults, and a constant vigil is kept by the relatives of 
the dead inmates of the tombs. 

There are few cities in the world, of the size of Buenos 
Aires, where so much electric power and light are used. All the 
streets are magnificently lighted, especially in the center of the 
city, and as there are many feast days during the year, when 
all the public buildings and most of the commercial houses are 
brilliantly illuminated, the amount of current that is used is 
some thing enor- 
mous. 

The ordinary pri- 
vate residence of a 
Buenos Aires family 
is far from being 
either comfortable, 
attra c t i v e, or, in 
some respects, 
healthful. It is 
Spanish in its con- 
c e p t i o n, and its 
rooms have glass 
doors, but no win- 
dows, with the usual 
patio or court in the 
middle. There is no 
provision made for 
heating in cold 
weather, and there 
is seldom hot water 
for bathing. 

Recently, how- 
ever, many modern 
houses have been 
erected by the rich 
who have traveled 

ONE OF THE MANY BEAUTIFUL MODERN 
RESIDENCES OF BUENOS AIRES. 




332 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

abroad and enjoyed real comforts, profiting thereby in build- 
ing their residences. Some enterprising persons have erected 
flat buildings, which have all the modern improvements to be 
found in such buildings in Chicago and New York. 

The city of Buenos Aires is entitled to its proud position as 
the commercial capital of South America, as well as being the 
political capital of the most prosperous republic, except the 
United States, on the Western Hemisphere. 



CHAPTER XX. 
SOME ITEMS OF ARGENTINIAN HISTORY. 

THERE is probably no other country in the world whose 
history, constitution and form of government so closely 
resemble those of the United States as do Argentina's. In age, 
as a republic, it is some thirty years younger. Its struggle for 
freedom and independence from Spain was brought about in 
much the same way as our own from England, although per- 
haps somewhat more easily. Men fitted for the great work 
arose, fought, bled and died and, as accident determined, were 
buried as national heroes or faded away into obscurity. 

The Rio de la Plata is said to have been discovered by Solis, 
in a desire to emulate Christopher Columbus, in the year 15 15. 
Others soon followed and founded the Spanish colonies that 
are now merged into the Uruguayan and Argentine republics. 
The Colonial period is not particularly interesting as history 
except to the Spanish student. It was followed by what is 




PRESIDENTS PALACE, ON THE PLAZA VICTORIA, BUENOS ATRES, 

ARGENTINA. 

333 



334 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

known as the Viceroy period, which system led by slow de- 
grees to the ultimate rising of the colonies and breaking of the 
yoke of Spain. But while in the case of the United States the 
great grievance was taxation without representation, that of 
the settlers in South America was the lack of protection by 
Spain of her colonies against her enemies, principally the 
English. Poor Spain, as a matter of fact, was too busy at 
home fighting the same enemy to pay much attention to the 
troubles of her poor relations abroad. So the South Ameri- 
cans banded together to defend themselves. A succession 
of unexpected events, incompetent commanding and, per- 
haps, the inscrutable decrees of Fate, led to the inhabitants of 
Buenos Aires, under Liniers, obtaining a sweeping victory over 
a force of 10,000 British who landed in the city from Monte- 
video, then actually in the hands of England. 

Lieutenant-General Whitelock and his whole army were 
taken prisoners by Liniers after a brilliant fight. They were 
only set free by yielding to Liniers' demand that Montevideo 
should also be evacuated. Thus Montevideo was restored to 
Spain, temporarily, by Buenos Aires. 

But it was the effect of this victory over a picked force of 
British in Buenos Aires that led to the downfall of Spain in 
South America. The great struggle came and Argentina shook 
herself free first in 1810, and her big sister up North, the 
United States, was the first to welcome her and recognize her 
independence. The memorable day, May 25, 1810, when 
Buenos Aires won her independence, has ever since been cele- 
brated as the Argentinian "Fourth of July." All the other 
colonies under the Spanish rule followed suit in quick succes- 
sion within a very few years. 

Like the United States, Argentina has two popular national 
heroes, San Martin and Bartolome Mitre. There are others, 
many of them ; but these two always emerge to the front, after 
periodical anniversary runs on others, easy victors and the real 
thing in historical heroes. In fact, they occupy in the hearts 
of the Argentinians the same position that Washington and 
Lincoln hold with us. Yet San Martin, after sacrificing him- 
self, his ambitions and his prospects to further the freedom 
of his country, was allowed to leave it, almost in disgrace, be- 



ARGENTINA 



335 




THE SAN MARTIN MONUMENT, BUENOS AIRES. 



cause he would not engage in politics and comic opera civil 
wars. He died in obscurity at Boulogne-sur-Mer, in France, 
in 1850. It was only years afterward that the Argentinians 
were seized with a spasm of gratitude toward the man who 
really brought about their freedom, and had his body brought 
back in pomp and state to his country on a man-of-war. It 
now lies in a fitting tomb in the cathedral at Buenos Aires. 

Bartolome Mitre was a soldier, statesman, art-lover and 
intense patriot. Most patriotic utterances on record that are 
treasured by Argentinians are his. His term of presidency was 
one that is quoted for its cleanness. In fact, Mitre was not a 
rich man either before or after he was elected, and derived his 
income from the ownership and publication of La Nation, the 
greatest influence for liberty and justice in this country. Great 
honors were accorded General Mitre at his death, which oc- 
curred about seven years ago. 

Of Presidents of the country there is an assortment from 
which to choose. The names that will live most vividly in the 
minds of the people have some specialty attached to them. 
There is Sarmiento, "the sapient," he might be called. He is 



336 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

credited with having done more to further education in Argen- 
tina than all the rest of its rulers put together. It was Sarmi- 
ento who brought down a batch of American school teachers to 
Argentina, male and female, some of whom are still living and 
drawing pensions from the Government. He had, previous to 
his election, been a resident in Washington for many years, 
where he was Argentina's minister to the United States. He 
had intense faith in everything American. 

There have been tyrants also in this free and independent 
republic. At least, there has been one, Rosas, the Dictator, as 
he was called. Rosas was undoubtedly a tyrant of the most 
pronounced type. But he was also a soldier of unflinching 
courage and in many ways covered the country with glory. 
Rosas carried his despotism to such an extent that a junta was 
formed which brought the Italian liberator, Garibaldi, to the 
country, with the secret intention of assassinating or removing 
Rosas in seme other way. Garibaldi gave up the idea and 
went back to Italy. Rosas was dethroned at last, however, and 
escaped to England, where he died, in Southampton, twenty- 
five years later. 

Of Presidents who have excelled in sheer statesmanship and 
diplomacy, the model is found in the person of General Julio 
Roca, who served two terms and is still living at the time 
of this writing. It was during General Roca's second term 
that the long pending boundary dispute with Chile was settled 
once and forever. General Roca now dabbles but little in 
politics, although he is still considered quite a factor. The 
caricaturists always draw him in political cartoons as a fox, on 
account of his accredited astuteness. He is one of the largest 
land owners, if not the richest man, in the country. I had the 
pleasure of being his guest at his La Larga ranch, as described 
in a later chapter. 

When it is considered that the constitution of the Argentine 
Republic is founded and based absolutely on the Constitution of 
the United States, and on that only, another similarity between 
the two republics will at once be noticed. Most of it reads 
word for word with ours, but certain sections have been modi- 
fied to accord with the State church, Latin ideas and Latin 
common law. There are many things in the constitution of 



ARGENTINA 



337 




GENERAL JULIO A. R0CA, TWICE PRESI- 
DENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF 
ARGENTINA. 



Argentina, however, which have not been adapted and, in con- 
sequence, are ignored by the laws of the country. Trial by 
jury, for instance, is provided for by the constitution, but not 
by any statute in existence. When a man, a short time ago, 
demanded a trial by jury from the Supreme Federal Court, as 
a constitutional right, the court, the Government and the coun- 
try were all in a quandary. The appeal has not yet been an- 
swered — just temporized with. 

The similarity of the two constitutions, therefore, provides 
for a similar form of government and method of administra- 
22 



338 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

tion. And it is similar — on paper. The President of the re- 
public has similar powers to the President of the United States, 
by constitutional right. But each successive President has 
tacked on a few extra powers, which, if not constitutional, have 
become firmly embedded by precedent. Only three years ago 
ex-President Alcorta suddenly and peremptorily adjourned 
Congress, because of opposition to the passing of the appro- 
priation bill, and declared the same for that year a law by 
decree. The members of Congress refused to adjourn and 
tried to hold sessions. The Congress House was locked up and 
the members locked out. When they tried to force an entrance 
the President ordered the commanding officers of the police to 
prevent and arrest them. The comic part of it came in when 
the chief of police was tried, convicted and fined and suspended 
from duty for obeying orders. But that decree became a law 
and has remained a law. 

The Government of Argentina, therefore, consists of the 
President, Senate and House of Representatives, or Chamber 
of Deputies, as it is called. That is what the constitution says 
it is. But the real government of the country is vested in what 
is known as the Executive Power. The Executive Power con- 
sists of the President and the Cabinet, or such portion of the 
Cabinet as the President may call into conclave. The Presi- 
dent forms his own Cabinet. If the Cabinet meets without the 
President, it is a meeting of the Cabinet, but not of the Execu- 
tive Power. The President now calls himself the President of 
the Nation and not the President of the Republic. This is not 
supported by the constitution, but was promulgated by the pres- 
ent Executive Power. It is very simple and very easy for the 
party in power. 

There are fourteen provinces — not States — and nine terri- 
tories. Each province is supposed to make its own laws, elect 
its own Governor and local authorities. They do. But the 
power of the Federal President looms large in the capital of 
every province. What is known as "intervention" is a matter 
of constant occurrence. Sometimes the intervention is asked 
for by the provincial Governor, sometimes by the rest of the 
provincial government against the Governor. It might be asked 
for by a new party altogether, suddenly mushroomed into exist- 



ARGENTINA 339 

ence. Sometimes it is not asked for at all, but is considered 
about due in that particular province. But whether it is asked 
for or not, it is never refused and, in fact, is liable to happen at 
any moment. 

During my stay of nearly three months in Argentina, I had 
been in ten provinces and their capitals. Out of fourteen I met 
most of the Governors and made a study of the situation, and I 
am satisfied that the system of national interference is not a bad 
one for the people, who only want good government, and not the 
offices for what there is in them. 

Members of Congress are elected. They are so much elected 
that they are elected long before election day. Elections in 
Argentina are as beautifully certain as are the weather or the 
crops. The weather here, year after year, is periodically per- 
fect. There are droughts, then heavy rains. Crops yield 
richly, their only enemies being the drought and the locusts. 
Revolutions are the locusts of politics and elections. The only 
remedy for mistaken government for years has been in revolu- 
tions. Elections are powerless. The outgoing Government 
simply nominates and elects the incoming force. And so it 
goes on like the perennial growth of cereals. 

The mainstay of the Argentinian army is conscription. It is 
also its principal ailment. Where a lot of neighboring powers 
are bunched together on one continent and rely for their mili- 
tary strength on conscription, it is simply a race for the biggest 
army or navy. Nothing else. The country that increases its 
population fastest is raising the biggest future army. A peace 
convention which would do away with conscription throughout 
South America would render war impossible in this part of the 
world. There was a funny situation connected with one of the 
last revolutionary elections here. The Vice-President was cap- 
tured and held as a hostage. He wrote the President that his 
life was in danger and would pay the price, if the President did 
not pardon the revolutionists — the whole affair had been a fail- 
ure. The President knew the Vice-President was in sympathy 
with the opposition and that this was only a ruse for pardon, 
so he wrote back : "It is a glorious thing to die for one's coun- 
try." With the Monroe Doctrine of Uncle Sam in force there 



34Q 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



is no danger from a foreign foe, and the republics in South 
America would have to arbitrate. 

The peace forces of Argentina's army number on paper 
20,000 men. The cavalry are undoubtedly the best of the ser- 
vice. The field artillery is much open to criticism. Taken as 
a whole, the Argentinian soldier is undoubtedly the best, physi- 
cally, in South America. His mixture of blood, with a drop 
here and there of Celtic and a dash or two of Anglo-Saxon, 
has given him a fighting brain. But his term of service is too 
short. Still, compared to other armies in South America. 
Argentina's land forces can be counted on to make a good 
showing. 

The navy is an unknown quantity. A fever for big battle- 
ships was engendered in South America a few years ago, and 
Brazil set the ball rolling by ordering "Super-Dreadnoughts." 
Argentina was compelled to follow suit and went Brazil one 
better by ordering two monster battleships from the United 
States, of a far more scientific and up-to-date pattern. But the 




ADMIRAL O CONNOR, OF ARGENTINIAN NAVY, 

WITH WIFE AND DAUGHTER. TYPES 

OF ARGENTINIAN HIGHER CLASS. 



ARGENTINA 



341 




DR. ROQUE SAENZ PENA, PRESIDENT OF 
THE REPUBLIC OF ARGENTINA. 



personnel of the navy, that is, the man behind the gun, is 
conscript, also. Consequently the body and backbone of the 
navy is constantly passing along and away. Conscription ren- 
ders Argentina's navy, as stated, an unknown quantity. The 
training of officers, the school of command, is in the highest 
perfection. But here again we are confronted with a regiment 
of colonels and "nobody to carry water to the horses." It is a 
mystery to the marine department as to how and with whom 
the new monster destroyers, coming down from the United 
States, will be manned. 

Necessity knows no law. Perhaps if the floating leviathans 



342 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

are ever put into battle, men will arise and stand efficiently at 
their posts, as they did in the past, and enable this country 
safely to cast its bread upon the wide waters of the world and 
look with continued pride upon its flocks. 

It is difficult for the people of the United States to under- 
stand why the elections in South America are not freer than 
they are. If you understood the people better you would know 
that in many cases they need protection from their own acts. 
The big, unselfish men of the country know this, or the condi- 
tion could not last, any more than did the Spanish rule when it 
was recognized as useless. With general education — and Argen- 
tina has a fine system of free schools — everything will change. 
In twenty years Argentina, and nearly all the South American 
republics, will have elections as unrestricted as they are now in 
the United States. Under the present system, life and property 
are as safe as in any country, and, after all, that is what Gov- 
ernments are for — not for the jobs. 

I had the honor of being presented to Gen. Roque Saenz 
Pena, the President of the republic, who has the confidence of 
the people and is well worthy of it. He offered his services to 
Peru, in her conflict with Chile, and fought many a hard battle 
for that country. He was the delegate to the Pan-American 
Congress at Washington and delivered an address in English 
before that body. I had a long audience with him and he was 
much interested in the progress of the United States, especially 
where our advances and institutions would benefit his country. 
I was introduced by Mr. Robert Woods Bliss, the charge 
d'affaires of the United States legation. Our legation in Argen- 
tina occupies the foremost position among all the Governments 
represented. The military attache is First Lieut. J. S. Ham- 
mond, from Chicago, who is very popular in Argentina. The 
United States is well represented now in our legation and 
consular service in South America. This could not be truth- 
fully said up to a few years ago. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



TOURING THROUGH ARGENTINA. 

WELL do I remember, how as a boy, I used to hear the 
"barkers" in front of the sideshows of the big circus 
yelling : "Walk up, gents, buy your tickets ! Before the morn- 
ing sun arises we will be many miles away !" 

It was after this fashion I "did" Argentina outside of 
Buenos Aires. I was continually "up and away." The rail- 
roads treated me with the greatest courtesy, placing at my dis- 
posal a private car having sleeping, observation, and cooking 
compartments, in the care of which Charlie, my personal serv- 
ant, was perfectly at home. 

For over a month I lived "on wheels," most of the time 
being spent in going from one place to another. We would 




MR. BOYCE IN HIS OBSERVATION CAR. 

343 



344 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

"shoot up" a town or city and the surrounding country during 
the day with our cameras (not guns) and move to the next 
place during the night, thus saving much time. 

I visited the capitals of ten provinces (States) out of the 
fourteen that comprise Argentina, and all the chief cities of the 
country, traveling 13,000 miles by railroad, water and on horse- 
back. 

Our first stand on this long trip was made at La Larga, 
where we enjoyed the hospitality of General Roca, twice Presi- 
dent of Argentina, and the interesting information gained there 
will be found in the chapter on Ranches. Here I found a sta- 
tion agent and telegraph operator, who received my cables from 
Chicago and got every word correct. 

The next stop was Bahia Blanca, on the Atlantic Ocean, the 
best seaport in Argentina, the city having 40,000 population. 
Here I spent a pleasant evening with Mr. Charles H. Doherty, 
formerly of Boston, who has been here twenty years; he is a 
successful contractor and has grown rich building docks and 
elevators. At dinner in Mr. Doherty's bachelor apartments, I 
met Mr. F. A. Jones, another "man from home," who is quite 
a character. He was the United States consul at Bahia Blanca 
for seventeen years and has an inexhaustible fund of stories 
about the country. The third American at the dinner was Mr. 
Woodward, a Texan, who is in the sheep business. During 
one of the revolutions he was put in jail and all his sheep taken 
from him. He has never received any satisfaction and our 
Government has never taken the trouble to secure justice for 
him. 

Mr. Arthur H. Coleman, the local manager for the South- 
ern Railway, took me around in a tug, and I thus got a compre- 
hensive idea of the port and its present and future importance. 
The city of Bahia Blanca is very substantially built. Three 
railroads have terminals here, the first in importance being the 
Southern Railway, because it more completely serves the terri- 
tory around this port, and "being on the ground first" it se- 
cured the most valuable terminal sites. They have great docks, 
elevators and warehouses and can handle 2,000 cars of freight 
per day. 

The second railroad in point of importance is the Buenos 



ARGENTINA 



345 



Aires and Pacific, which has a line down through the center of 
Argentina, connecting east to Buenos Aires, and west to Men- 
doza and the Pacific Ocean. Its terminal here is a few miles 
south and west of the Southern, where it has built large grain 
elevators and a flour mill. 

The French line from Rosario direct to Bahia Blanca has 
no permanent terminal and lands at the navy docks, where it is 
a tenant subject to notice to vacate at any time. This road is 
for sale, and is supposed to have been built as a "hold up" on 
the other roads. 

The fact that this port is the only one, in all Argentina, with 
water deep enough (thirty feet) to float large war vessels, 
makes it of first impor- 
tance. The port is thor- 
oughly protected by islands 
from the ocean, and is the 
only one where Argentina 
can keep the two great 
warships being built for 
her in the United States. 

Southwest of Bahia 
Blanca is a salt mine with 
enough salt, 99 per cent 
pure, to last Argentina for 
fifty years ; in fact the sup- 
ply seems inexhaustible, 
for as fast as the salt is re- 
moved it comes up from 
the bottom. 

Mar del Plata is on the Atlantic Ocean, 250 miles directly 
south of Buenos Aires. It is the summer (October to April) 
Monte Carlo and fashionable watering place of the republic. 
All kinds of gambling games are run here, being permitted by 
the Government, and the only limit I heard of was the blue 
sky — and the atmosphere is very clear here. 

It is a very dull place in the winter (April to October), but 
in the summer has a population of 50,000. The bathing is 
good, the buildings and streets very modern, and an unlimited 
amount of money is spent during the season. An example of 




SALT MINE NEAR BAHIA BLANCA, 
ARGENTINA. 




FISHERMEN'S BOATS AT MAR DEL PLATA. 




MAR DEL PLATA, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL A. 




THE HOTEL BRISTOL, MAR DEL PLATA. 




PULAR WATERING PLACE OF ARGENTINA. 



348 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



the cost of living here is shown by the fact that a fairly good 
lunch costs five dollars ! 

La Plata is located on the coast only one and one-half 
hours' ride from Buenos Aires. It is the capital of the prov- 
ince of Buenos Aires, and has a population of 30,000. At one 
time this province thought it was all Argentina ; in fact, it re- 
mained out of the confederation for some time, and for the 
sake of peace the capital of the province was separated from 
the capital of the republic about thirty years ago. 

At the time La Plata was improved by provincial capital 
buildings, credit was so good that unlimited money could be 
secured, and the costly and beautiful buildings are monuments 
to useless expense and extravagance for which the people were 
heavily taxed, and which did much to bring on the panic of the 
'8o's all over the world, beginning with the failure of the great 
banking house of Baring Brothers, of London, England, who 
were heavily interested in financing Argentinian projects. 

It is impossible to separate the province of Buenos Aires 
from any description of Argentina ; when you have read one 
you know the other, except that La Plata is "the place the fish 
come from" for Buenos Aires and the interior markets. 



There is a splendid chance to 
dustry all along the coast and 
Argentina, as it is in its infancy ; 
cheap until the last few years 
catch fish. Omitting the port of 
go from the big southern port of 



develop the fish in- 
up the big rivers of 
meat has been so 
that it did not pay to 
Buenos Aires, as we 
Bahia Blanca north- 




THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE, LA PLATA, ARGENTINA. 




POLICE HEADQUARTERS AT LA PLATA, ARGENTINA. 




THE FINE RAILWAY STATION AT LA PLATA, ARGENTINA. 



35o 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



ward, the next great port is Rosario, population 200,000, on 
the Parana River, 200 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. This 
city is the Chicago of Argentina. Here ocean-going vessels 
drawing up to nineteen feet of water come from the ports of 
the world and return laden with wheat, corn, alfalfa, meat 
and cattle. 

There are miles of docks and endless warehouses and eleva- 
tors located on the river, as is evidenced by the fact that it took 
me two hours on a fast power boat to pass from one end to the 
other. It is the most wonderful river harbor in the world, 
and though it is nearly 300 miles from the ocean, it is also a sea- 
port. You see the flags of all countries, except the United 
States, floating from the masts of steam and sailing vessels of 
all kinds, from the barge to the ocean greyhound. The river 
is three miles wide here and nearly one hundred miles wide at 
the ocean. 

Fifty per cent of the freight traffic is handled by the Ar- 
gentine Central Railroad, a fact I learned from Mr. Adams, 
division superintendent of this road, who gave me nearly two 




'■ ■") Zl MMiMWIb- 





MR. BOYCE ON THE BRIDGE OF THE STEAMER ALCARAZ, PARANA 
RIVER, ARGENTINA. 




WATER-FRONT VIEWS AT ROSARIO, ARGENTINA. 



352 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



days of his time, during which I secured much information 
that space forbids using. 

Mr. Adams is the president of an organization that handles 
all the vessel freight in Argentina. The freight handlers, or 
stevedores, belong to no union, but they are guaranteed top 
wages when there is loading and unloading to be done, and 
are paid a reasonable amount per day when there is nothing to 
do. They also have a sick and death fund, and the absence of 
strikes at any time, for any reason, makes it possible for ship- 
pers and vessel owners to figure when they can receive and 
discharge cargoes. This plan has worked well for five years. 

The next port going north is Santa Fe, a city of 20,000 
population, which is the capital of the province bearing the 
same name. It is like most other cities of Argentina — plaza, 
cathedral, Government buildings, poor hotel, hustling cab 
drivers. 

Santa Fe has two railroads and a port built by cutting a 




PLAZA AND GENERAL VIEW 



ARGENTINA 



353 



canal five miles long to the Parana River. The country here 
and on the west bank of the river north to Paraguay is very 
low and swampy. The chief export from this port is timber. 

We left our car at Santa Fe and crossed the river to Pa- 
rana, which is a pretty city built on a high bluff overlooking 
the Parana River. In May, 1853, a national congress was held 
in Santa Fe which sanctioned a federal constitution and named 
Buenos Aires as the capital, but as the province of Buenos 
Aires refused to join the federation, the seat of government 
was located at Parana, which for six years remained the capital. 
The city has a population of 30,000 and is the capital of 
Parana. Ships drawing fourteen feet of water can dock here 
and it has a good port. 

The provinces of Entre Rios, Corrientes and The Missions 
form a very important part of Argentina. The country com- 
prising these provinces is not prairie, but is rolling and well 
watered by many rivers; it averages 1,000 feet above sea level 




[E CITY OF SANTA FE, ARGENTINA. 
3 




A BIRD S-EYE VIEW OF 




A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE C 




OF PARANA, ARGENTINA. 



* 




ORRIENTES, ARGENTINA. 



356 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



and produces much grain, while cattle and sheep do exceed- 
ingly well. The whole country is divided up into smaller 
farms than the remainder of Argentina, and will support a very 
large population. In the northeastern portion of the depart- 
ment of The Missions there are many fine water powers, and I 
look for this section of Argentina to improve very rapidly. It 
all lies east of the Parana River. 

If Uruguay, the Entre Rios country and Paraguay were 
under one government they would form the best average politi- 
cal division in South America, from a climatic and productive 
standpoint. There are at least one hundred good ports in this 
geographical division, from many of which ocean-going vessels 
come and go. 

Crossing back over the Parana to the west side, from Corri- 
entes, I found myself in the Argentine chaco, a tropical swamp 
country where they are developing cotton and cane planta- 
tions. In this section, for three hundred miles north and west, 
as far as transportation by rail or water reaches, the chief 




THE CATHEDRAL, PARANA, ARGENTINA. 



358 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



industry is the taking out and shipping of quebracho wood to 
the United States and Europe. 

This wood is used for tanning hides of all kinds. It is a 
dark red in color, is very heavy and cannot be floated. The 
trees grow about thirty feet in height and are quite crooked. 
Some companies grind the wood into a powder about as coarse 
as sawdust, which makes it easy to ship. Others extract the 
juice, but as yet more of it is shipped in logs after they are 
"squared" with the ax. The word quebracho is the Indian 




CATTLE HIDES IN A TANNERY YARD, ARGENTINA. 



term for "hard on ax," and those who handle the wood declare 
it has been rightly named. 

Returning to Santa Fe, we boarded our car for the northwest 
interior near the foot of the Andes Mountains, where it is hot 
and dry and the chief crops are cane and tropical fruits, grown 
by irrigating the fertile soil. 

I met a newspaper man who had just returned from ex- 
ploring the section north of Tucuman in search of cheap land, 



ARGENTINA 359 

and I give in his own language the story of his experience 
there : 

"I arrived late in the evening at Pecoy, a collection of huts 
on the bank of the river. Many of the inhabitants of this place 
have bad records and are proud of them. I was in doubt 
whether to feel nervous or secure in this place, but decided to 
stop until some decent person went by on the road. I began to 
feel queer— the bad water, want of proper food and little sleep 
telling on me. 

"I did not like the looks of the first man that turned up and 
announced that he was going my way. However, he bunked 
alongside of me and the next morning he started on, but finding 
that I did not follow he returned in the afternoon. 

"That night he went to his mat fully dressed, with his mule 
saddled up to make a quick getaway. I lay down late with 
my revolver in one hand, an open knife in the other, and a tin 
can under my head with a bit of wire laid around to make a 
noise and waken me in case I fell asleep and was attacked. 

"About two o'clock in the morning my companion arose and 
came toward me ; I covered him with my revolver and decided 
to use one of my cartridges, but he took the hint and lay down 
again. 

"In the morning the woman of the rancho, who was evi- 
dently in on the deal, advised me to leave by a small path and 
make my escape — but I failed to take the hint. I waited two 
more days, my neighbor regularly starting off and returning. 
He finally informed me that a family from Pecoy was going 
my way, and as I evidently distrusted him he had arranged for 
me to accompany them. 

"The name of the family was notorious. I waited until he 
started again and then I left along the cattle trail to Lagua- 
rutas. This is a lonely spot some thirty miles from any habita- 
tion, and the scene of many cruel murders. 

"What was my surprise, on coming to the river, to find 
the family waiting for me ; it was composed of an elderly man, 
another man and his wife, and a peon. The reception they ac- 
corded me foreboded no good. They were dining and I had 
some trouble keeping out of reach of their big knives. 

"Finally they mounted and I rode behind them ; I had my 



360 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

doubts of ever reaching Taragal. The elderly man and the 
woman jockeyed around until they got behind, and I heard the 
woman suggest to the man to hit me on the neck, to which he 
replied that I did not give him the chance. 

"Later on in the day I had the satisfaction of seeing them 
held up by three men, and in the confusion I succeeded in get- 
ting past, though I soon heard hoofs clattering after me, which 
influenced me to spur my mule to full speed. 

"I passed a band of Matoca Indians, who had that morning 
murdered two travelers. Beneath a tree I saw the body of a 
poor fellow whose throat had been cut. The birds were al- 
ready feeding on him. I was glad to give up the object of my 
trip into that section, and considered myself fortunate in get- 
ting out of it." 

Evidently that section of the country toward which we were 
journeying was one of adventure and hair-raising experiences. 






CHAPTER XXII. 
Argentina's vineyards and towns. 

IT IS as far west from Santa Fe to Tucuman, Argentina, as 
it is from Chicago to Bismarck, N. D., yet it took us less 
time to make this trip on the Argentine Central Railroad (a 
splendid system) than it takes to make the journey from Chi- 
cago to Bismarck. 

Leaving Santa Fe in the morning we traveled all day 
through prairie country, just like our own West, and it made 
me homesick. At the time we made this trip it was early 
winter in Argentina and spring in the United States. Oh, 
how I missed the springtime, when everything is budding out 
into new life ! And that is one of the joys that is never ex- 
perienced in Argentina; they do not have springs or falls in 
South America, only summers and winters! 

Arriving in Tucuman in the morning, we could not see 
out of our car windows for the dust. We had passed through 
the poor, dry part of the country at night, and the windows 
of our car were "frosted" from the accumulated dust gath- 
ered during our journey. 

Before I was dressed Charlie came rushing into my room 
and excitedly exclaimed : "Fo' de Lord's sake, Mistah Boyce, 
dey done jus' shot up everybody in de station ! Git yo' gun !" 

There was indeed great excitement, for two men lay dead 
in the ticket office, all the cash not locked in the safe was gone, 
and soldiers and police were everywhere. Four weeks later 
I heard that they had not captured the bandits, who in mak- 
ing their raid did not even give the poor ticket agents a chance 
to hold up their hands, but shot them in the back. They also 
took several shots at the division superintendent, Mr. S. T. 
Harris-Smith, but he was some distance from them and es- 
caped. His wife, a brave United States woman, ran upstairs 
and got his gun for him, but the robbers and murderers had 

361 



ARGENTINA 



363 



made good their escape before she returned with the weapon. 

The incident served to recall the experience of a newspaper 
man in the region north of this section (which I related in a 
previous chapter) and it put us all on the watch for trouble 
when we started on our horseback trip into the wilds north of 
here. 

That we did not come into open conflict with some of the 
brigands along our route is perhaps due to the fact that we 
were all well armed and had an escort that was perfectly 
reliable. However, I am inclined to say that what this sec- 
tion needs is, perhaps, five hundred Texas rangers for a year 
or so, then robbery and murder would become less common. 

Tucuman is trie Philadelphia of Argentina — it was here 
on July 9, 1816, that the Declaration of Independence was 
signed. The little old house, desk and other furniture made 
famous by this historic event are all in an excellent state of 
preservation, for ex-President General Roca was born near 
this city, and he wisely had the little old "Independence Hall" 
enclosed in a magnificent steel and concrete building, and made 
a trust fund for its maintenance. 




INTERIOR OF INDEPENDENCE HALL, TUCUMAN. ARGENTINA. 



3°4 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



The employes looking after the property will not accept a 
tip from sightseers, being well paid for their services. The 
Argentinian man and woman (not the foreigner) as a rule 
refuse tips. A small boy who carried my satchel from the 
omnibus to the hotel office refused a tip, with the added 
expression, "My boss pays me." He must have been a Boy 
Scout. 

Tucuman is the center of the sugar-cane section of Argen- 
tina, and the entire country about is dotted with cane mills. 




INTERIOR VIEW OF SUGAR REFINERY, TUCUMAN, ARGENTINA. 



The Central Railroad hooked my car to an engine and ran me 
around a whole day through cane plantations. 

Owing to the protective tariff on sugar — about eight cents 
a pound — this business is extremely profitable, and Tucuman 
is very prosperous as a result. The city is the capital of the 
province of Tucuman, and its public buildings, beautiful 
parks, well-paved streets, finely-stocked stores, and well-fed 
and neatly-clothed people, impress the tourist, making the rob- 



ARGENTINA 



365 



beries and lawless conditions that prevail in the outlying re- 
gions stand out in still more glaring manner. 

Tucuman is also a winter resort for this part of Argentina, 
and naturally it is a gay town and quite up-to-date. They 
were just finishing a new hotel, theater and casino (gambling 
house) at a cost of $1,000,000, when I was there. They were 
also developing a big hydro-electric plant thirty miles from 
the city. The "head" or fall is 525 feet and it will bring 
15,000 horse-power to the city. The entire country about 










THE RIVERA INDARTE THEATER, CORDOVA, ARGENTINA. 



Tucuman depends on irrigation, as it snuggles up close to the 
base of the dry Andes Mountains. Coal is eleven dollars and 
a half per ton. 

Going from Tucuman to Cordova, the third city of im- 
portance in the interior of Argentina, we had to run east to 
Rosario and then west again, covering about 1,000 miles, and 
most of the journey is through a very dry country. Irriga- 
tion is necessary, and there are large areas for which there is 
no water. 




THE BANK OF CORDOVA, ARGENTINA. 



ARGENTINA 



367 



Cordova is located near a river which has its source in the 
Sierra Mountains, and so precious is the water of this stream 
that it is first stored and used to furnish power and light, after 
which it is turned into the irrigation ditches. Everything 
grows where irrigation is applied. The Government has an 
experiment agricultural farm at this point, but its instruction 
must be along "dry" farming lines, as we could scarcely see 
the farm for the dust when we were there. 

J. G. White & Company of New York, the largest electrical 
engineering firm in the United States, built a hydro-electric 
power plant near here, but they must have had wrong figures 
as to the amount of water available, or the local company 
had more money than it knew what to do with, as there are 
twice as many water wheels and generators as there is water 
to supply power. This company is now building another plant 
farther down the river, in order to use the water over again. 

There is an astronomical observatory near Cordova, in 
charge of which are three homesick people from the United 
States. Next to taking care of a lighthouse this must be the 
most lonesome job in the world. Cordova also boasts of a 




A VEGETABLE MARKET, CORDOVA, ARGENTINA. 



3 68 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



very old university, which was established in 1613 or 1316. I 
do not remember the date, but it reminds me of the story of 
the small boy who was asked when his father was born, and 
he replied that, "It was in 1418 or 1814 — blamed if I can re- 
member which!" 

I motored from Cordova to Alta Gracia, about thirty-five 
miles. Alta Gracia has the reputation of being located where 
the air is so pure that all cases of consumption are cured. The 
statement comes very nearly being true, and as a result it is 
well patronized by persons with tubercular troubles. Cordova 
has 75,000 population, and except for the dust and lack of 
water would be a fine city. 

From Cordova I returned to Buenos Aires and made a 
new start. I was sorry to bid good-by to the Argentine Cen- 
tral Railroad, for it is a splendid system and is well kept up, as 
are all English-owned and operated railways. 

The most important city in Argentina, not having water 
transportation, is Mendoza, the center of the grape and wine 
industry. I left Buenos Aires one afternoon, arriving at Men- 
doza twenty-four hours afterward, a distance of 700 miles to 




•H 1 --.* 1 % 



VIEW OF VINEYARDS 



ARGENTINA 



369 



the west. This is the end of the wide-gauge railroad; here 
one changes cars for the Trans-Andean Railroad, which goes 
through a tunnel in the Andes Mountains and lands one in 
Chile, saving a two weeks' trip down one side of South 
America and up the other. Unless the South American tour- 
ist has plenty of time and money, or is after information for 
a book or newspaper articles, as I was, he cannot afford to 
take the risk and go through the hardships of a trip around 
the southern end of South America through the Straits of 
Magellan. The scenery from Mendoza to the tunnel is the 
finest in Argentina, and the person who makes the journey is 
well paid. 

The Governme'nt owns the irrigation plant at Mendoza, 
and in the vicinity there are 100,000 acres in vines. The 
French grapes were introduced twenty years ago and the wine 
made equals the French claret and sauterne. 

It is said that seventy per cent of the water in the irrigating 
ditches sinks into the bottom of the ditches, and that as a 
result water is scarce. If the bottoms of the ditches were 




ERIES NEAR MENDOZA, ARGENTINA. 



370 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




THE RUINS OF A CHURCH DESTROYED BY EARTHQUAKE, 
MENDOZA, ARGENTINA. 



concreted they could plant 200,000 more acres in vines. Ob- 
viously this should be done, as it never rains in this region. 

Mendoza is subject to earthquakes, and fifty years ago 
every building in the city was shaken down, 10,000 lives hav- 
ing been lost. The city is quite a bustling place, as an evi- 
dence of which eighty passenger trains arrive and depart each 
day, though most of these make but short trips — not unlike 
our own suburban trains. 

The vineyards support an immense population, 50,000 peo- 
ple living in Mendoza, and the country districts are thickly 
populated. During the grape-gathering season two solid 
trains loaded with grapes are shipped daily to Buenos Aires, 
besides 2,000,000 casks of wine (forty-two gallons to the cask) 
are made annually in this region. 

San Juan, with a population of 20,000 and lying fifty miles 
north of Mendoza, is the capital of a province bearing the 
same name. San Juan is nearly three hundred years old, and 
I had expected to find it a very interesting place, but was dis- 
appointed. It is as dry as the country about Mendoza, noth- 



ARGENTINA 



37i 




A STREET ROLLER, SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA. 

ing being raised except with the aid of irrigation. Grapes do 
well, and judging from the number of children that followed 
us about while we were photographing, large families must 
be the rule. 

The provincial government of San Juan was in a bad way 
financially, a defalcation of $3,000,000 gold recently having 
occurred. As a result the national Government had appointed 
a Governor and taken control in accordance with the Argen- 
tinian plan of intervention. 

San Luis, the capital of another province, two hundred 
miles east of San Juan, was reached one night by attaching 
our car to a freight train. This province was also in trouble, 




A MILKMAN AT SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA. 




MR. BOYCE, HIS SECRETARY, MR. GULICK, AND HIS SERVANT, 
CHARLIE, IN A COOPER SHOP IN SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA. 




RURAL SCENE NEAR SAN LUIS, ARGENTINA. 



374 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

caused by the dishonesty of trusted officials, and the national 
Government had intervened, as in San Juan. 

The principal occupation of the people of this region 
seemed to consist of digging the roots of a small tree or bush 
that grows in this dry soil, and selling the roots for firewood. 
A low. range of mountains runs through the province and 
there are a few streams, along which it is possible to raise a 
limited number of cattle. The population of the town of San 
Luis is 10,000, and the largest thing there is the railroad sta- 
tion. 

One evening, about seven o'clock, my car was attached at 
San Luis to the through passenger train for Buenos Aires, 
and the next morning, at six o'clock, the "beauty sleep" of 
everybody on the train was suddenly interrupted by a crash 
and bump that pitched us from our berths to the floor. 

There was a moment's lull just after the crash, during 
which we rubbed our bruises, then I heard Charlie, my serv- 
ant, yelling : "We're all right ! We're on de track !" To 
which I replied that he was mistaken, so far as I was con- 
cerned, as I was not on the track, but on the floor. 

We dressed and got out to see just what damage had been 




THE ENGINE OF MR. BOYCE'S TRAIN WITH ITS NOSE IN A 
FREIGHT CAR AT ALBERDI. 



ARGENTINA 



375 




LIFTING THE WRECKED CAR FROM THE TRACK. 



done, and ascertain if our services were needed in caring for 
the injured, but fortunately the wreck was not that serious. 
Investigation revealed that our engineer must have gone to 
sleep, for on the dead level, where he could see straight ahead 
for five miles (it being daylight), he had run into a freight 
train and jammed two freight cars into one and put his engine 
into the center of the two cars. 

It took six hours to get a wrecking train and four hours to 
clear the track — and I lost a day. Had it been our train that 
was run into, my car being the last, there probably would 
have been a funeral with myself in the first "buggy" behind 
the pallbearers. However, we secured some good photographs 
of a wreck, and made the acquaintance of an interesting ranch- 
man who beats the railroads by not using them. 

This man has a chain of ranches extending from this point 
to Buenos Aires, one hundred and fifty miles distant. These 
ranches lie about twenty miles apart and he drives his cattle 
to market, fattening them on the way. He is the largest ranch- 



2,76 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

owner in Argentina, having over 300,000 acres of land, all 
fenced and under cultivation or in alfalfa. The railroad peo- 
ple complain of this unfair competition, which strikes one as 
being rather humorous. 

It is impossible for any country to develop its natural 
resources without adequate transportation facilities. This is 
what Argentina possesses. Her splendid railroads, big rivers 
and ocean frontage afford better and cheaper facilities for 
moving her products than exist in any country in South or 
North America. This accounts for her prosperity and the 
stability of her Government. 

The country with the most revolutions is the one where it 
is most difficult to dispatch troops quickly. Argentina, with a 
population of nearly 7,500,000 has 15,000 miles of railroads, or 
more in proportion to her population than the United States. 

The standard gauge of the railroads of the United States 
and Europe (except Russia) is four feet eight and one-half 
inches. In Argentina the standard gauge is five feet six 
inches, and as the railroads are owned principally by English 
capitalists, you will wonder why this is so. 

The standard gauge in Russia is five feet six inches, the 
same as in Argentina, and it is owing to this fact that the rail- 
roads of this republic have the same gauge. Again you will 
wonder why. It is the old story : "As the twig is bent the 
tree's inclined." 

At the close of the Crimean War in Russia in 1854, Eng- 
land found that she possessed some cars and locomotives in 
the Black Sea region that did not fit the gauge of the railroads 
at home, so some speculators bought them cheap and started 
the first railroad in Argentina. As more cars and locomotives 
were needed they were bought to fit the rails already laid, and 
the little road became a great system, still using the five-foot 
six-inch gauge. Thus, as "the twig was bent the tree inclined." 

When Spain controlled all of South America, except Bra- 
zil, she established Lima, Peru, as the seat of government, be- 
cause it was near the great source of gold and silver. She 
gave to a "merchant trust" located in Cadiz, Spain, the right 
to sell all the goods shipped to South America, and for three 



ARGENTINA 277 

hundred years all merchandise shipped to, or products sent 
out of South America, were forced to follow one route. 

Take your map, please, and follow me : From Spain to 
Panama, across the Isthmus, down the Pacific Ocean to Peru, 
then by llama, burro and the human back, via Lake Titicaca 
and La Paz, Bolivia, down the eastern slope of the Andes, and 
through Argentina to Cordova, where forty per cent additional 
duty was added, when the goods were allowed to be distributed 
to Paraguay, Buenos Aires and Uruguay. 

The freight, shrinkage, theft and losses added 1,000 per 
cent to the cost when the goods were received by the ultimate 
consumer, and imported luxuries were necessarily very dear. 
Under these conditions smuggling became a thriving and 
profitable business all along the coast. Do you wonder that 
Spain lost South America in thus attempting to protect a 
"trust" ? There is a good lesson in this. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



ARGENTINA S AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 

IN CONSIDERING how Americans could make money in 
this country, the opening I have in mind, and it is a big one, 
is the raising of pigs for breeders as well as for meat. The 
Argentinians are fifty years behind the times on pork raising. 
The farm laborers being nearly all foreigners accounts for 
there being so few small farms. The big ranches do not run 
stores, with "booze" as the principal stock, as do the rancheros 
of Chile. This tends to sobriety. 

If Argentina had sufficient farmers she would soon become 
the food-producing country of the world, as there are 80,000,- 

000 acres in the republic 
that will raise wheat and 
nearly everything in cereals 
and flax. I will give you 
the figures for the acres in 
crop for 1911-12: Wheat, 
17, 412,500 acres; 206,800,- 
000 bushels. Corn, 7,700,- 
000 acres; 308,000,000 
bushels. Oats, 2,250,000 
acres ; 55,950,000 bushels. 
Flaxseed, 3,837,500 acres; 
2,440,000,000 pounds. Add 
2,500,000 acres for every- 
thing else grown, and you 
have 33,700,000 acres in 
crop, or but a little more 
than three-eighths, only 
about forty-two per cent, 
of the possible area under 
cultivation. 




AN ALFALFA STACKER AT WORK 
ON AN ARGENTINIAN RANCH. 



373 



ARGENTINA 



379 



And yet the Argentinian crops 
are at the present time regulating 
the prices of grain and cattle for 
the world. What will it be when 
this country is developed up to a 
point equal to the older countries? 
Stop and think ! 

The United States holds the posi- 
tion of being the greatest wheat- 
producing country in the world — 
700,000,000 bushels, with 93,000,- 
000 people, while Argentina, with 
less than 7,000,000 population, 
holds the fifth place. Hence, you 
observe, that with eight per cent as 
large a population our Southern 
rival produces wheat in amount 
equal to about thirty per cent of 
what the United States produces. 
Argentina also produces corn and 
other products in proportion 

There is certainly going to be no 
shortage of food in the world for 
the next century. The price of 
food will depend upon the amount 

of money in circulation. If there was only one gold dollar 
in the world you could buy everything for that one dollar ; 
hence, if there is one hundred billion gold dollars prices will 
be one hundred billion times higher than if there was only one 
dollar. We need not worry about prices, only quantity and 
quality need disturb us. 

Thirty years ago, when the rush was on for the wheat 
lands in Minnesota, Dakota, Manitoba and the great North- 
west, the cry was "Wheat! Wheat!" My dear old friend, 
T. W. Teasdale was then, as now, general passenger agent 
of the C, St. P., M. & O. Railway. His railroad served 
northern Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, where corn was the 
chief crop. His passenger business was falling off, for every- 
body was headed for the wheat land. 




TYPE OF YOUNG WORK- 
MAN, ARGENTINA. 



380 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Every homeseeker going to the Northwest passed through 
St. Paul and changed cars there, and as they always took a 
walk around while waiting for a train out, Mr. Teasdale 
hung out a huge banner near the St. Paul station, on which 
was inscribed in letters that could be read a long distance this 
warning: "He who goes zvhere Indian corn won't grow is a 
long way from home." 

The tired farmer, cramped up in a homeseeker's coach 
for several days and nights, with his stomach bad from eat- 
ing cold lunches (put up at home) and about ready to go 
back anyhow, was immediately impressed by this sign, and 
many went Southwest to find new homes where Indian corn 
as well as wheat would grow. Also, Teasdale saved a share 
of the traffic for his road. 

Argentina has long been known to the people of the United 
States as a wheat country, but it is also a corn country. More 
corn is exported from Argentina than from the United States. 
This is true, largely, because the cattle are fattened on alfalfa 
and not on corn. 

The soil is a black vegetable loam, and in many sections 
mixed with sand. The sand lets the air down to the roots of 
the alfalfa, which find water from five to fifteen feet deep. 
There is a larger percentage of arable soil in Argentina suita- 
ble for the growing of alfalfa than in any other country in 
the world. 

The process of getting the alfalfa started is this : The 
owner of the land rents the raw land to a farmer, furnishing 
the seed, for a small percentage of the crop. The land is 
broken up, one, two or three crops of wheat or grain of some 
kind are taken off, then it is sown to alfalfa. The ranchmen who 
own the land are not the farmers, the latter being mostly foreign- 
ers, who are just getting a start in this country. They usually 
own a few horses, plows and farm machinery, but no land. 

The land is not farmed as well as it would be if the owners 
were cropping it; this is shown by the average per acre. In 
the United States wheat averages thirteen bushels to the acre ; 
here only ten. The thirty per cent greater yield we produce 
simply means thirty per cent better farming. In England the 
wheat yield is thirty-one bushels to the acre, and I believe 



ARGENTINA 381 

that in ten years from now the average yield in the United 
States will be twenty. This will be equal to nearly doubling 
our acreage. 

Only one-half of the earth's surface, not covered with 
water, will produce anything on which man or beast can live, 
and only one-half of that is now occupied or used, and this 
land is only worked to about fifty per cent of its capacity. So, 
you see, there is still room for four times the population old 
Mother Earth now supports without crowding. 

In Argentina, as is most new countries, when breaking up 
the sod for the first time, much of it is sown to flax, and at 
the present price the first crop frequently equals the value of 
the land. Oats sown in the fall come up quickly, and, on ac- 
count of the mild winters, afford splendid pasturage for cattle 
for several months without injury to the crop, which is cut 
before wheat. No spring grain crops are sown, and while our 
winter-sown crops take about nine months to mature, all crops 
ripen here in six months after the seed is put in the ground. 

There are just as many different prices for grain lands as 
there are grades, distance from market, improvements and 
other conditions considered. Good wheat land within two hun- 
dred and fifty miles of Buenos Aires, or one hundred miles 
from a port and near a railroad, can be bought for from eight to 
twenty dollars per acre; wild, unimproved lands bring from 
two to five dollars per acre. 

I saw a farm of four thousand acres near the city of 
Buenos Aires, that was held at $180 per acre. It had splendid 
improvements and part of it was in alfalfa. It earns twelve 
per cent on the investment. Money is not considered well 
placed here unless it brings ten per cent net. However, it 
must be remembered that only the eastern half of Argentina is 
suitable for grain ; the western half is dry like parts of Arizona, 
New Mexico and California. 

Near the mountains, where the snow forms little rivers 
that are used for irrigating the land, everything grows abun- 
dantly, especially grapes. All the land onto which water 
can be got has been in a high state of cultivation for more 
than one hundred years, and a good vineyard is worth thou- 
sands of dollars an acre. 



3 82 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



In investigating the matter of farm machinery I found that 
less of it had been made in the United States than I had ex- 
pected. The general complaint about our farm machinery is that 
it is too light and will not last. English makes are preferred, 
especially those designed for use in the English colonies, like 
Australia and Canada. One English thrashing machine will last 
as long as two from the United States. However, I found 
that the American-made windmills were favored and preferred 
on account of their strength and durability. The "Champion" 
road grader from the United States is in general use. 

I think I have a surprise for those readers who are at all 
interested in farming; it was a surprise to me. In Argentina 




CROPPERS AT WORK IN A WHEAT FIELD, ARGENTINA. 



they cut, thrash and sack their grain for five per cent of the 
value of the crop, while in the United States it takes at least 
fifteen per cent. This interested me more than any other one 
economic subject in the country. 

About four years ago there was introduced from Australia 
a harvesting machine and thrasher combined that requires 
only three men at the most to operate, and from four to six 
horses. It skins the grain out of the heads of the standing 
wheat, blows the chaff away and deposits the grain in sacks 
beside the machine as it moves along. It is called a "cropper." 
One machine will average ten acres a day, and costs seven 
hundred dollars delivered. 



ARGENTINA 383 

When the machines were first introduced they had not 
been perfected and were practically failures. Two years ago 
the makers (there are four makes and no monopoly) came 
back into the market again, and ever since the machines have 
worked so well that I did not hear of a thrashing machine or 
engine or other harvesting machine being sold since. 

On one large farm, with thousands of acres under the 
plow, I found eighty "croppers." I saw the books that were 
kept on several large estates, and they all claimed they could 
not be induced to use any other harvesting machine, and that 
five per cent of value of crop is correct as to cost from standing 
grain to sack. I inquired if there was not considerable loss of 
grain that never reached the sack, and they stated that the loss 
was no more than in cutting, binding, stacking and thrashing. 
The more operations, of course, the more chances of loss. 

They had trouble with weeds and thistles gathering on 
the teeth that skin the grain from the heads of wheat until 
a rake, worked by the man on the machine, was perfected in 
Argentina to overcome that defect. This improvement has 
been adopted by the manufacturers. 

Just think of saving thrashing, twine, stacking, teaming 
and delays, to say nothing about extra labor ! Three men can 
crop two to three hundred acres easily. Another saving 
claimed for this method is that there is no broken grain, as in 
thrashing. Of course the straw is left standing and cattle are 
turned in on it to get the benefit of this sort of grazing. When 
the remaining straw is trampled down it is plowed back into 
the ground. 

The machine described can be used in a heavy wind and 
be effective on short straw, but not on "down" grain. It is 
effective with ninety per cent of all wheat, oats and barley, 
but is useless on flax. 

The harvesting months in Argentina are December and 
January, and it would pay American farmers to club together 
and send a man to this country to look over the way they 
do things. The farmer here has one disadvantage — he is 
only a temporary tenant, moving on, as heretofore explained, 
every few years. Having little or no capital, he borrows from 
some of the Jewish banking houses in Buenos Aires, which 



3§4 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



take his growing crop as security, and when the wheat is in 
sack, set the price. There are no local elevators to which the 
farmer can take his grain and get the cash, so he is at the 
mercy of the aforesaid Shylocks, who greedily "squeeze the 
life out of him." 

All- grains are moved to the ports for export in sacks, 
which is a big expense to the producer. Freight rates are 
reasonable, and the haul by rail, mostly in open "flat" cars, 
is never over three hundred and fifty miles to market at a sea- 
port. The rich men of the country are the cattlemen, and their 
ambition is to get their land holdings into alfalfa or tame 
grass, and they do not want to sell the land. 




BROOD MARES ON AN ARGENTINIAN RANCH. 



Despite the occasional lack of rain the potato, root and fruit 
crops are usually abundant, and they raise two crops a year of 
potatoes and many other vegetables. A country does not suffer 
the extremes of hard times when it has a big potato crop, for, 
next to wheat, the potato furnishes more food for man than 
any one other product of the earth. 

During the Spanish-American War I recall that I was on 
my dispatch boat, the old filibustering yacht Three Friends, 
about four miles out of Havana, two days after the battle of 
Manila. About dusk the Machias, a United States gunboat, 



ARGENTINA 



385 




A PERCHERON STALLION ON AN 
ARGENTINIAN RANCH. 

coming up from the coast of Yucatan bound for Key West 
to coal, sighted us and sent a small boat to see who we were. 
During the day another vessel had wigwagged to them that 
there had been a battle at Manila, and when the small boat 
reached our side the boatswain cried out : 

"Have you any word from Manila, or any potatoes? We 
have had no potatoes for two weeks?" 

So you see that potatoes are sometimes considered as impor- 
tant as great battles. 



25 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
RACIAL TYPES AND INDUSTRIES. 

THE people of Argentina- may be easily divided, so far as 
race is concerned, into four classes — pure Latin, Latin 
mixed with some other race, some other race without Latin, and 
the criollo. The latter element furnishes the picturesque part 
of the population. This division is, of course, without reck- 
oning the aboriginal Indians, of which there are many varie- 
ties — most of them decidedly far from picturesque. 

Naturally the Latins predominate, and all languages intro- 
duced into the country gradually disappear into the Spanish, 
the original tongue disappearing altogether with the third gen- 
eration. There are but few exceptions to this rule, and there 
are even English and American descendants in large numbers 




A MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY, ARGENTINA. 
3 86 



ARGENTINA 387 

who speak nothing but Spanish, unless they have purposely 
studied English as a foreign language. 

The representative of the third generation of Argentin- 
ians is of a distinctly different type from either his Spanish or 
Italian forefathers. He is taller, stronger, more industrious 
and less polite. The strong hold which football has taken on 
the youth of Argentina is proof of this, while cricket is played 
only by the recently-arrived English, with but few excep- 
tions. 

There is little to attract the attention in the ordinary male 
inhabitant of Buenos Aires and the smaller cities and towns. 
As a rule he is well clad, both as to comfort and appearance. 
He is not particularly polite as to the way he makes his way 
through the narrow, crowded streets, but he is not offensive 
in the way he elbows his way along. He does not resent it 
if you do the same and hold your own, and he would be ex- 
tremely surprised if you resented it. 

Workingmen in their working clothes, which might soil 
or incommode the ordinary person, keep somewhat aloof, and 
at certain hours extra cars are attached to the trams marked 
obreros (workingmen), in which they ride and pay half 
price; but they rode just as freely in these extra cars of their 
own accord, when they paid full fare. 

It is not until you get into the country, where the masses 
of those who labor are criollos, that the Argentinian be- 
gins to attract your attention from a spectacular point of 
view. There, on the estancias, you come in contact with the 
gaucho, the Argentinian cowboy, pure and simple. He is a 
cowpuncher in every sense of the word, but strikingly differ- 
ent from the cowboy of the bigger republic up North. He is 
much smaller and more compact in build; he is of Latin 
origin, with perhaps a dash of Indian here and there. Most 
of them never touch hard liquor from one year's end to 
another, although even the gaucho goes on an occasional 
spree. When he does, he drinks cana (cane whisky), and 
most of it is about the most deadly drink one can possibly 
imagine. He does not chew tobacco, though he smokes strong 
Italian cigars, occasionally a pipe, and innumerable cigar- 
ettes. He is an inveterate gambler, but generally for small 



3 88 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



stakes. He apparently likes chiefly the gambling part of it. 

Like the North American Indian, the gaucho can and often 
does go many hours without food. When he does partake of 
food, he eats inordinately large quantities of meat, either in 
the form of puchcro, a sort of boiled affair, with a coarse 
vegetable or two thrown in, or, as somewhat more of a lux- 
ury, an asado, which is mutton or beef roasted in front of a 
campfire. 

A lamb is generally cooked whole, or in two portions. 
When the asado is ready each gaucho cuts off the portion 
he wants. He knows no other way of cooking, and often 
goes for days without bread with his meals. His greatest 
mainstay, however, is the mate — tea made from leaves of a 
tree that grows in Paraguay — which he boils the first thing in 
the morning, and without which he would be unfit for his 
day's work. Having had sufficient of this beverage in the 
morning, he will go all day without anything else to drink, or 
without food to eat. 

Naturally the gaucho is an expert horseman, for he lives 
in the saddle. He is also very clever with the lasso, although 
his lasso is very different from that used by the cowboy of the 




A GAUCHO S PONY AND SADDLE, ARGENTINA. 



ARGENTINA 389 

North. It is much longer and heavier in every way. There 
seem to be yards too much of it, and you wonder why it does 
not get in his way ; but he has his own method of handling it, 
and it answers his purpose. 

It is a debatable question as to which is superior in the 
handling of a steer, the American cowboy or the Argentinian 
gaucho. It seems to be a fact, however, that a single cowboy 
does what it generally requires two or three gauchos to ac- 
complish. 

Expert horseman that he is, the gaucho has his own ideas 
of riding. He does not use the the regulation pommel sad- 
dle, but a recado, which is a kind of semi-rolled-up stuffed 
sheepskin. He uses this at night on the pampa as a pillow, 
while his poncho is converted into a blanket. 

The boleadoras, a lasso with a ball attached to the end 
of it, which he used to carry, is now in a great measure dis- 
carded. It was a clumsy affair at the best and frequently 
blinded cattle and otherwise injured them. But the gaucho is 
always willing to give you an exhibition of his skill with the 
boleadoras, although he is beginning to recognize its lack of 
utility. 

His sole weapon of offense and defense is the same long 
knife with which he cuts off his chunk of asado while enjoying 
the camp table d'hote. He seldom or never carries a revolver. 

This is the gaucho of today. Fifty years ago all sorts of 
stories were told of this class of men. There was one type 
of gaucho, known as rastreadors, who would have filled 
the Chicago small boy's heart with delight. Rastreador 
means "tracker," and luckless indeed was the criminal who 
had one of these men on his trail. He never gave up the 
chase. Only a few years ago, in 1902, the Government of 
Rioja actually employed ten rastreadors to hunt down the 
bands of cattle thieves that infested the provinces. It is said 
that they absolutely exterminated them. 

There is yet another curious class of natives in the coun- 
try, which is somewhat of a mystery to students of races. 
The men are called chinos, and the women chinas. They 
have straight, jet-black hair and, although darker in the face, 
possess almost the exact features of the Chinese. There is 



39Q ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

the same slanting slit of eye, same formation of eyebrows, 
and, not knowing the contrary, one would be positive in iden- 
tifying the Argentinian chino as a Mongolian of some sort. 
Most of their blood originally must have been Indian, but 
they speak nothing but Spanish and there are now no tribes 
of Indians, that resemble them. 

The men are very active in their movements, sly, and 
inclined to be dishonest in small things. The young china 
woman makes an excellent domestic servant. She is perhaps 
the finest nurse girl in the world, and she is extremely fond 
of children and never tires of attending to them. 

All of the criollo natives, including the gaucho, are inordi- 
nately fond of music. They have a music of their own, which 
has a certain wild beauty that is very attractive to strangers. 
The guitar and mandolin are their favorite instruments, string 
music appealing to the criollo more than the reed. 

When gauchos become old, and they have to be very old 
before they cease to work, they are generally taken care of 
by the estancieros in whose employ they have been. Often 
they receive a monthly pension, and an amusing story is told 
of how a lot of old, retired gauchos "went on a strike" for 
higher pensions and won out. The estanciero was so amused 
and astonished by the "nerve" and novelty of the "strike" that 
he granted the demand. 

Argentina as a manufacturing nation can scarcely yet be 
said to be even in its infancy. The two great necessary min- 
erals — coal and iron — are still lacking as natural products. 
Nevertheless, in those branches of industry where a deter- 
mined effort has been made, success has attended the very 
first endeavors. As a striking instance of this may be quoted 
the footwear industry. 

Fifteen years ago ninety per cent of leather boots and 
shoes of all kinds were imported into the country, notwith- 
standing, or perhaps because of, an exorbitant tariff. That 
depends upon your politics. But today, the import duty on all 
manufactured boots and shoes is forty per cent ad valorem, 
and nearly ninety per cent of the footwear sold in Buenos 
Aires is manufactured in the republic. 

Much of the footwear sold here is now sold as of North 



ARGENTINA 391 

American manufacture, even to the extent of stamping the 
name of some fictitious factory of the United States upon it. 
But although not made in America, as claimed by the vendors, 
the articles are turned out by large and ever-growing fac- 
tories that use American machinery and mold their work on 
American lasts. 

In their Centennial Exposition of 1910 boots and shoes were 
turned out, finished in up-to-date style, before the eyes of the 
spectators, in half an hour, every portion of the work being 
done by American machines. But shoes made in the United 
States are still sold here, though on account of the tariff, at a 
high price, and there is now one large store in the most fashion- 
able shopping thoroughfare of Buenos Aires, Calle Florida, 
which sells at retail nothing but one make of American boots 
and shoes. 

For many years an enormous trade has been done in a 
loose, comfortable, soft shoe with rope soles and canvas tops, 
called the alpargata. They can be bought for one dollar 
in paper money (forty-five cents in United States money) per 
pair, and are worn exclusively by workmen and laborers. An 
astonishing lot of wear can be got out of a pair of alparga- 
tas, notwithstanding their apparent lightness and flimsiness, 
and some of the better class of shoe dealers and furnishing 
stores have turned out a better form of alpargatas, which are 
worn by the well-to-do in the country and at the seaside. 
There is one alpargata factory in Buenos Aires which boasts 
it can make over 100,000 pairs a day. 

There are one or two glass factories which are able to con- 
tinue business, but the cost of imported fuel and material is 
a severe handicap to them, which is only partly met by the 
almost prohibitory tariff designed to protect them. During 
the time I was there, the first motor car manufactured 
in Argentina lumbered through the streets of Buenos Aires, 
bearing a large sign announcing its native origin. 

There is one industry, however, that has so far been 
entirely able to keep pace with the natural production of the 
country, and that is the business of packing meat, the plants 
for which are here called frigorificos. The packing plants 
have steadily increased in size, number and productive power ; 



ARGENTINA 393 

so much so that the Beef Trust in Chicago has long had its 
"google" eyes on them. 

Various emissaries have been sent to Argentina from time 
to time, all kinds of glittering offers have been made to the 
different companies, but only two plants (which were fail- 
ures) in this country have, as yet, listened to the blandish- 
ments of the tempter from up North and sold out. 

The plants referred to are the "La Blanca," situated in 
Buenos Aires, and the "La Plata Cold Storage," in or near 
the city of La Plata. The former is now considerably im- 
proved under trust management and has almost doubled its 
output. The latter is run on the principle of the packing plants 
in Chicago, and every possible centavo that can be made is ex- 
tracted from every ounce of every animal that enters 'and 
leaves its doors. 

To describe one of these plants is to describe them all, 
the only difference being in the locality and the daily output 
of each concern. The La Plata plant, said to be owned by 
Swift & Company of Chicago, or the Beef Trust, was so insan- 
itary and dirty that the man in charge refused to allow us to 
photograph the interior. Labor, from unskilled to skilled, is 
paid from one dollar and twenty-five cents to three dollars 
and a half per day. 

One of the great manufacturing industries of Argentina is 
the refining of sugar. The principal refinery is located at Ro- 
sario, and is owned by Germans and Argentinians. Most of 
the yellow sugar is shipped from Tucuman and the territory 
north of there. Two years ago it was necessary to import 
beet sugar from Germany in order to keep the factory run- 
ning. The capacity of the refinery above referred to is 7,000 
tons a day, or 700,000 tons for one hundred days. They 
operate only during the period in which cane is cut and reduced 
to brown sugar. 

The price of sugar in Argentina is three times that charged 
in the United States, and the industry is only fostered by a 
prohibitive import duty. The people complain rather bitterly, 
as the sugar trust, owing to the tariff, makes an enormous 
profit. The territory that grows cane is quite limited and 
must be irrigated. 



394 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

I was at one winery where they make 1,000,000 gallons a 
year. There are 910 bodegas, or wineries, in the province 
of Mendoza, and over 100,000 acres of land are in grapes, the 
land being worth $3,000 per acre. The grapes sell for an 
average of $500 per acre a year. 

The Government tests all wine, and there must be twelve 
per cent of alcohol in the product — no more, no less. The 
annual output of wine for this province is 5,000,000 gallons. 
The next province for the grape is San Juan, just north of 
Mendoza. Many provinces produce more or less. 

Flour and feed mills are located at convenient points, but 
the lack of power — water power being very far away, and all 
coal imported — makes cost of manufacturing flour too expen- 
sive. 

Argentina is limited to agricultural and mercantile pur- 
suits, and I do not see how it can become a manufacturing 
country. The total lack of minerals — even building stone — is 
quite a disadvantage, and the very high tariff imposed on every- 
thing makes living, except for the food products, very high. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE RANCHES OF ARGENTINA. 

WHEN the first white man came to North America he 
found the Indians, the buffalo (wild cattle), the pony, 
and a great variety of game. Not so in South America. The 
first white people who tried to settle, about four hundred years 
ago, what is now Argentina, found the Indians, the guanaco, a 
species of llama or wild sheep, but no cattle or horses. The 
absence of wild game to live on had forced the Indians of South 
America to secure a living direct from the soil, instead of from 
animal life. This accounts for the advanced condition of agri- 
culture and irrigation. The Spaniards brought cattle, sheep 
and horses with them w T hen they attempted to make their first 
settlements in Argentina. The Indians massacred the whites, 
and their domestic animals escaped and lived and thrived in a 
wild condition on the endless pampas (prairies), multiplying 
by millions on the wild grass and sweet waters of this rich 
country and soon returning to their original natural condition. 

Wild grass makes wild cattle. Tame grass makes tame cat- 
tle. The Indians, from seeing the first soldiers sent out by 
Spain riding horses, learned the use to which these animals 
could be put, so they caught, tamed, and broke many of them 
and used them to great advantage in their wars with the set- 
tlers or other Indian tribes. They became very expert on 
horseback. The half-breed gaucho (cowboy) of Argentina has 
had no equal, except in our own frontier cowboy of Texas, 
where the climate and topography of the earth's surface is 
identical with that found here. The same conditions produce 
the same results the world over. 

I had the good luck to meet General Julio Roca, twice 
President of Argentina, and one of the wealthiest and most pow- 
erful men, politically, in the republic. He extended to me an 
invitation for a few days' shooting on his estancia (ranch) at 

395 



396 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

La Larga (meaning long). He has five estancias in different 
parts of Argentina. He was born on a ranch and has always 
been a great champion of the country as against the city. When 
elected President the first time, in 1880, he had to fight his way 
into Buenos Aires, and for a while established the capital out- 
side the city. A President cannot, according to the constitu- 
tion, succeed himself. His second term was served only six 
years ago. He is now sixty-seven years old, and a wonderfully 
well preserved man, with many years of usefulness ahead of 
him. 

The La Larga ranch is two hundred and fifty miles south- 
west of Buenos Aires, where twenty-five years ago only wild, 
unconquered Indians lived. The Government established a 
fort here, and General Roca opened up the country. This 
ranch is about twenty-two miles long and ten miles wide. Its 
name, "La Larga," comes from its being twice as long as it is 
wide. It contains over 140,000 acres of very fine grass and 
farming land, and is said to be a good sample of an average 
cattle and grain-growing farm in Argentina, where nearly the 
whole country is divided up into what we would call verv large 
estates. The real pampas of Argentina are about fifteen hun- 
dred miles long (from 24 degrees south to 45 degrees south), 
and from five hundred to seven hundred miles wide. It is 
known as an "ocean of land," and is treeless, except where 
planted by the owners. There is not a big hill or heap of stones 
to break the monotony. 

There is little or no song-bird life. It is the kingdom of 
silence. It is the backbone and wealth-producing section of this 
wonderful country. It is to Argentina what Illinois, Kansas, 
Iowa, Nebraska, Texas and the Dakotas are to the United 
States and exactly similar in products, climate and appearance. 
There are many rivers and the country is well watered, the 
average rainfall being about the same as in the United States. 
However, as in the United States, they have "dry years," and 
certain sections in 1909 and in 1910 were quite dry, short- 
ening the crops of wheat and corn and leaving little pasture for 
the cattle, which helped keep up prices of grain and cattle in 
the United States. The meat, wheat and corn producing sec- 
tions of the United States and Canada may just as well realize 



ARGENTINA 397 

now as later on, that Argentina is the country that will set the 
export price and that Argentina controls our home market price 
for agricultural products, and that here equally as good land as 
we have in the United States is still selling for from only five 
to twenty dollars an acre in the older settled parts. This is a 
serious proposition, but we must face it. Land in the older and 
better sections of the United States is selling for the same price 
as equally good land in England, France and Germany, and we 
have the difference of freight against us in reaching the markets 
of the world. 

In the year previous to my journey to South America I 
motored over ten thousand miles in Germany, France and 
England, and made inquiry everywhere as to prices of land, 
finding practically no difference between the three coun- 
tries mentioned and the United States. We must realize, 
as the Minister of Foreign Relations (Secretary of State) 
for Argentina said to me : "The United States of North 
America is now an old country." 

But to return to La Larga and my personal experience. I 
left Buenos Aires one evening by the Southern Railway on an 
electric-lighted solid Pullman train, and the next morning was 
met at the station, called La Larga, by Mr. Allendo, general 
manager for General Roca. He was accompanied by the assist- 
ant manager, Mr. Walter Hamilton, a Canadian from New 
Market, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Allendo has been in charge of 
this ranch for twenty years ; he also has a large ranch of his own 
in the province of Cordova, three hundred miles north, and is 




A DURHAM BULL ON LA LARGA RANCH. 



398 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



said to be worth $500,000 himself. He has seven sons, and 
proposes to educate them in different countries of the world, 
one in the United States, one in England, etc. Mr. Hamilton 
is a graduate of the Agricultural College of Ontario, and is 
making commendable progress in this new country. 

There are three railroads and three stations on this big 
ranch. I was driven to the General's residence in a carriage, 
such as we use for going to the opera in Chicago, by a coachman 
in livery, behind as fine a pair of horses as I ever saw. After 
a breakfast such as you would sit down to at the Waldorf in 
New York, I was driven through a thousand-acre park, set out 
with hundreds of thousands of trees. I was shown the kitchen 
gardens, where all kinds of vegetables were still growing, al- 
though it was late in the fall in Argentina. 

My secretary, as well as my photographer, had preceded me 
by two days and had taken about forty photographs, all of 
which I wish I could show the reader. We then started to look 
over the ranch, and four magnificent horses were hitched to a 
coach and we set out for one of the smaller ranch houses for 
lunch. Over fifty miles of roads have been made on this ranch 
by a United States "Champion" road grader, and although it 




ONE OF THE SCHOOLS ON THE RANCH OF GENERAL ROCA AT 
LA LARGA. 



ARGENTINA 



399 



had been raining, the roads were so well "crowned" and 
drained it was almost dusty. 

The first stop made was to visit one of the schools sup- 
ported by General Roca for the children of his two hundred 
employes. You never saw a cleaner, brighter-eyed, keener- 
looking lot of youngsters in your life. One thing that struck 
me as odd was that they all studied "out loud." The noise, to 
one not accustomed to this, was awful, but I presume it's all 
in getting used to it. They sang for me the national hymn and 
recited in a way quite creditable to any public school. 

Next we witnessed the branding of some mule colts. Then 
we went on to the great concrete dipping trough, through 
which the cattle are driven when they need it. One thing I 
noticed was that all bones of animals that died on the ranch 
were gathered up into a pile and burned. This, Mr. Allendo 
told me, prevented disease among the cattle, as they would bite 
the bones for the salt, and contract sickness. 

Another thing that impressed me very much was the fact 
that when all those big farms are divided up and sold to small 
holders, some day, and public sentiment is now facing this con- 
dition, the men who have worked on these big estancias will 




MR. BOYCE, MR. ALLENDO, AND MR. HAMILTON INSPECTING A 
CATTLE DIP ON LA LARGA RANCH. 



400 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




A DROVE OF ARGENTINIAN CA 

have had the benefit of first-class schooling and training 
in how to do things right and will owe their future success to 
such men as General Roca, Mr. Allendo and Mr. Hamilton. 

When we arrived at the "lunch house" I found it to be quite 
an establishment, where forty men were dining in a big room, 
supplied with a meal that one would pay a dollar for in the 
United States. A man cook was in charge of the kitchen. 
These men on the ranch receive from twenty to thirty dollars 
a month, the year round, and their board, and when married are 
furnished with a house free and food for their families as 
well as themselves. The men are sober, save their money and 
buy land whenever and wherever a big estate is broken up, 
which is not uncommon now. 

I was surprised to find, when I sat down to a bountiful 
lunch in a large, clean dining-room in a big farmhouse, that, 
thinking I might be particular as to how I was served, they had 
sent over Charlie, my personal servant, fifteen miles, to wait 




A FLOCK CONTAINING THOUSANDS 



ARGENTINA 



401 



m m 



*n 



THE WIDE PRAIRIES AT LA LARGA. 

on me at the table. Charlie enjoyed the ride, I knew, and I 
appreciated the trouble to which they had gone. After lunch we 
took some photographs and returned to the residence, which 
contained every modern comfort. There I enjoyed a bath in 
a six-foot bathtub, in a room 10x20 feet, with tile floor, walls 
and ceiling. There were four such bathrooms in this house. 

General Roca was subdividing this ranch, as well as his 
others, I was told, into five parts, and improving each sepa- 
rately for his five children — one son and four daughters. The 
big thousand-acre park at La Larga he will present to the Gov- 
ernment for a forestry station to demonstrate to the public 
what can be done in a few years with trees on the prairies of 
Argentina, and thus prove what has long been his hobby. 
He has over 400,000 trees on the La Larga estancia, 
most of them only ten years old, while many are only 
two years old. The favorite tree, which does the best and reaches 
a height of fifty feet in ten years, is the eucalyptus from Aus- 




4 02 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

tralia. A thornless variety of the acacia does well and soon 
furnishes shade. Fruit trees grow well, as do many other 
varieties. 

Of the 140,000 acres in this ranch, 20,000 acres were in 
crop. Oats are sown in the fall, come up quickly and the cat- 
tle graze on the fields. No hay is put up. This crop comes 
in and is harvested before the wheat. 

On this ranch I found 30,000 head of cattle, mostly Dur- 
ham. A good fat steer weighing 1,300 pounds, live weight, 
will bring $50 gold. Of course there is only a small percentage 
of this grade. They are seldom fed grain. Much of this ranch 
has been put into alfalfa, which the cattle eat down close by 




SPECIMENS OF BEEF CATTLE AT LA LARGA. 

fall and during the winter. The cattle thrive and fatten on the 
alfalfa plant, which grows well on nearly all Argentinian 
ranches, as the roots reach water at from five to fifteen feet. 

The second great source of national wealth is the pastoral 
industry ; cattle, horses and sheep are the leaders. In 1909 the 
census showed 29,116,625 head of cattle, principally Durhams 
and Herefords, in Argentina, and 69,438,758 in the United 
States. Of horses there were 8,531,376 in Argentina, with 21,- 
216,888 in the United States. In sheep, Argentina led the 
United States, having 67,21 1,758, mostly Merinos and Lincolns, 
while Uncle Sam could show in the same year only 61,837,112. 
There are quite a number of mules bred from pure Spanish 
jacks. In some sections goats are raised for their skins. The 



ARGENTINA 



403 



total value of live stock of all kinds in the republic is over 
$1,600,000,000. 

On the La Larga ranch General Roca has 20,000 Lincoln 
sheep and 5,000 horses. He breeds mostly Percheron horses 
crossed with well-bred native stock, which produces a good- 
sized, quick, strong and clean-looking animal. Here I found 
over 5,000 ostriches, from which they get an average of two 
dollars' worth of feathers a year, and they are no trouble to 
look after, but each ostrich eats as much grass as a sheep. 

The system in Argentina is to fence everything. On one 
ranch I found four hundred miles of wire fence. Only the top 




TYPES OF HORSES ON THE LA LARGA RANCH. 



wire is barbed. Around all groves of trees a fine wire is used 
to keep out rabbits, or hares, which are a pest in some localities. 
When we were hunting on the La Larga ranch we shot them 
until we grew weary. A three-horse wagon followed us all 
day, and the box was full at night. 

The martinetta is about the size of our prairie chicken, 
possibly a little larger. It is a swift flyer and makes a hard 
shot when off, but is hard to get up. It is marked more like 
our pheasant than grouse, and has dark red wings, being a 
very handsome bird. Another game bird, called the capetone, 
has a beautiful topknot, and is handsomely marked. It is about 
the size of a young prairie chicken, is gamy and a good flyer. 



404 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



They have also what they call a quail, but it is about the 
size of the partridge of the Southern States and twice the size 
of our bob-white. It is a "runner," but makes a quick get- 
away when it rises. 

There are few hunting dogs in the country, the system 
used being to take about one hundred yards of wire with a 
horse at each end and drag the ground. The sportsmen fol- 
low the wire on foot. The coaches, and horseback riders to 
gather up the game for the wagons, are always on hand. 
Every minute there is a hare or bird to shoot at, and when you 
get tired of shooting and walking you get into the coach, drawn 
by four horses, and ride awhile. 

I would be 
ashamed to tell 
how many shells 
I shot; anyhow, 
over two hun- 
dred a day, and 
the reader 
might think me 
boa sting if I 
mentioned m y 
bag. It was the 
best few days' 
sport I ever 
had, or expect 
to have, and I 
have had a few 
and hope to 
have a few more in the future — in my own native land. 

It now became my duty to take my last look at Argentina, 
and to say farewell. For nearly three months I had car- 
ried a card from the chief of police of the city of Buenos 
Aires that protected me from arrest under any circumstances 
or for any crime. From the President down to the most lowly 
citizen, every opportunity possible had been afforded me to 
gain correct information about conditions as they really ex- 
isted. The clubs and hotels had treated me as a real guest, 
and not as a transient customer. The merchants, and those 




WHEN WE LUNCHED ON LA LARGA RANCH, 
ARGENTINA. 



ARGENTINA 405 

with whom I did business, took my money as if they needed 
it and charged what seemed a high price for their wares — but 
no more than others paid. 

The newspaper fraternity treated me like a brother. There 
are a lot of big men in the profession in Argentina and they 
aided me freely in every way. The railroads could not have 
treated me better had I been the President of the United 
States or an ambassador. I was not only put over the road 
"in comfort" — which means a private car — but had the assist- 
ance of every division superintendent in securing entrance to 
factories, ranches and public and private places. This aided 
greatly in saving time. It was not from Buenos Aires that 
I got my view of Argentina, but from 13,000 miles of travel, 
principally by railroad and river. 

Argentina, I am glad your railroads pay, and that capital- 
ists of the United States have been lately investing in your 
stock. To the United States legation, and the good friends I 
made, who invited me to their homes and made me welcome, 
I owe a great debt. I shall never forget your generous hospi- 
tality, and while I may never be able to repay you in like 
manner, I will try to pass it on to some one else. From the 
bottom of my heart I thank you. 



PARAGUAY 

Area, 157,000 square miles, or a little larger than the States of 
Iowa, Indiana and Illinois combined. Population about 
500,000 — Chief resources, mate {Paraguay tea), tobacco, 
cattle, timber, oranges — Total exports and imports in 1910, 
$9,800,000 — Exports to United States in ipu, $34,516, 
imports from the United States, $86,986 — Army, esti- 
mated at 2,600, but varies according to the size of the revo- 
lution that may be under zuay — Capital, Asuncion, popula- 
tion, 80,000. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
INDIANS, SPANISH, DICTATORS, RESULTS. 

GOOD climate, soil and transportation, are the three great 
factors in the development of a highly civilized race. The 
exception to this rule, world-wide though it be, is Paraguay. 
Read the answer in the history of the country. I will only at- 
tempt to give a short review of leading events, in order to bring 

the reader down to the present, 
and then enumerate the net re- 
sults. 

Before Columbus discovered 
South America, the whole country 
was inhabited by Indians. Those 
who occupied what is now Para- 
guay, were and are called the 
Guaranies, and the country 
Guayra. The Indians living in 
the rich, fertile country east of the 
Paraguay River were peaceful 
and tilled the soil and lived on 
tropical fruits. Those west of the 
same river occupied what was sup- 
posed to be inaccessible swamps, 
and were wild and nomadic in 
their habits. This country west 




***% ^MNa t3||pl ^^| 



A WOMAN SMOKER IN 
PARAGUAY. 



406 



PARAGUAY 407 

of the Paraguay River, known as the Chaco swamp, has lately 
proved to contain much fine grazing land. 

In 1526 Cabot, searching for the center of South America, 
from whence all the gold was supposed to come, came up the 
Paraguay River and stopped at an Indian village, where Asun- 
cion is now located. He did not go farther north, as he was 
out of provisions, but returned home unsuccessful. How- 
ever, he reported the Indians in these parts of South America 
as peaceful and not warlike. This in itself was a great dis- 
covery. 

In 1533 Mendoza received from Charles V. of Spain a large 
grant of land, from the Rio de la Plata south, if he could take it 
from the Indians and hold it. He arrived the same year where 
Buenos Aires is now built, with 2,000 men. The Indians re- 
fused to give up their homes peaceably, and also refused to 
furnish food for the foreign invaders, who nearly starved. 
Neither did the Spanish appreciate being picked off one at a 
time if they left their fort. This was not fair, so those left of 
them at the end of a year came on up the river, first to Cabot's 
old fort, then on up the Paraguay River, and established the 
first real white settlement, in 1536, at Asuncion. There is no 
prettier or better site for a city in South America. The ground 
rises in a gentle slope from the river, affording excellent drain- 
age. If you will take the map of South America, and start at 
the mouth of the River Plata, and follow up that river to where 
it is formed by the Parana and the Uruguay Rivers, then on up 
the Parana River, to where the Paraguay River comes into it, 
and then up this last-named river for 150 miles, you will be at 
Asuncion, the capital city. If you were to go on up the Para- 
guay River for two hundred miles more, you would be in 
Brazil, where this river has its source. As I stated in the be- 
ginning, good transportation is necessary to the development of 
any country and race of people. These three rivers, the Plata, 
Parana and Paraguay, furnish a navigable water course for 
large ships, drawing at Asuncion ten feet of water, and more 
as you pass down the river, until you come to Santa Fe, where 
you may see ocean-going vessels berthed. 

These rivers are so wide that sailing vessels successfully 
navigate the course. From Buenos Aires to Asuncion, 700 



4o8 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




miles as the crow 
flies, is over 1,000 
miles by the river. A 
Chicago newspa per 
correspondent, who 
had never been on or 
up the river, wrote a 
letter for his paper, 
some years ago, de- 
scribing this "chain 
of rivers" as being 
navigable for big war 
vessels for 2,000 
miles, and this article 
was read into the 
Congressional Record 
at Washington, mak- 
ing it official. It was 
not true, and caused 
much trouble, as the 
world accepted it as 
true, because it was 
"officially" published. 

Paraguay can not 
lay her uncivilized 
condition to a lack of 
connection with the 
outside world, nor to 
her climate, soil or 
products, but to a 
chain of c i r c u in- 
stances unique in the 
attempt to develop a 
nation. 

When all that re- 
in a i n e d from the 
Mendoza expedition 
reached Asuncion, 
they concluded to re- 



PARAGUAY 



409 



main, and took In- 
dian women for 
wives. During the 
next seventy-five 
years the country 
thrived and grew, 
and the half-breed 
children, called 
Creoles, made many 
settlements over 
that part of Para- 
guay east of the 
river of the same 
name. The de- 
scendants of these 
Creoles are now 
the "old families" 
of the republic. 
They were mostly 
cattle people. They 
were so far from 
Spain they paid 
little attention to 
Spanish laws or 
rule, but got along 
very well among 
thems elves, and 
the half-slave In- 
dians, who did the 
work for them. 
Since the appear- 
ance of the first 
white man the Par- 
aguayan India n 
had been accus- 
tomed to take his 
orders from him. 
About the year 
1617, however, the 



111 



4io 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 







A PARAGUAYAN SOLDIER 



Jesuit priests having been' driven farther 
west from the Atlantic coast, began to in- 
troduce their customs and religion, and to 
make attempts at civilizing the Indians. 

From 1580 to 1640 there was no well- 
defined line between Portugal and Spain as 
to their South American possessions, and 
during this time the King of Spain was 
monarch of Portugal. So the Jesuits, who 
held a royal letter, given during that period, 
to convert the Indians of Guayra — -the name 
given this country — thought they were per- 
fectly safe, and "had it right going and 
coming." The Jesuit fathers gathered the 
Indians into villages and had them build 
churches for them and cultivate a little land 
near the villages. They were kind to the 
Indians and did not teach them the practices 
of war, but peace. By these means tribal 
wars were prevented, and the population 
increased very fast. However, the Creoles, or land owners, 
were by the acts of the Jesuits deprived of the labor of the 
Indians, as the Indians preferred to work for the Jesuits, and 
like two labor unions, the Creoles and the Jesuits were always 
at "outs" with one another. 

The Jesuits were great organizers, hard workers and repre- 
sented a degree of civilization never since reached in Paraguay. 
Their worst enemies, however, were the Paulist order of monks, 
who had driven the Jesuits from Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Paul- 
ists desired to take slaves, teach the Indians war, and create 
an army out of them for offense and defense. As the Paulists 
were always armed they had no trouble in breaking up the 
settlements of the Jesuits, who were defenseless. The latter 
only scattered until the fathers got them together again. This 
three-cornered fight, between the Creoles and the two orders of 
the Church, kept up for more than a century, costing many 
lives and holding the country back. At last the Jesuits armed 
their Indians, and as the Church had taken sides against them, 
they did business on their own account, and were quite sue- 



PARAGUAY 



411 



cessful. They threw out not only the Church, but the Spanish 
Governor, nearly one hundred years before the first republic 
in South America was established. In effect, they established 
the first republic in a country which now forms a portion of 
the so-called Republic of Paraguay. 

In 1769 the King of Spain banished the Jesuits from South 
America. At that time they had 200,000 Indians under their 
command. They did not resist. They faded away and the 
country returned to a state of chaos. The Spanish officials, 
who replaced the Jesuits, were very cruel to the Indians. 

There was a Spanish Governor at Asuncion, and Belgrano, 
the enthusiastic Argentinian general, set out to establish a re- 
public for Paraguay. With a small army, not expecting resist- 
ance, he got within sixty miles of Asuncion, where he was met 
by the Paraguayan soldiers and defeated. He escaped, but 
part of his army fell prisoners and were held in the country, 
where they told their captors about the advantage of a republi- 
can form of government. The result was a revolution, and a 
bloodless one, for the Spanish Governor had no soldiers and 
Spain was helpless to aid him. So he stepped aside and became 
a private citizen. 

After a good deal of fuss with their new-fangled freedom, a 
sort of Congress was held. General Yegros, an ignorant sol- 
dier, and Francia, a wise and learned lawyer, popular with the 
people, were selected to rule. After much trouble brains suc- 
ceeded over bullets, and Francia was elected sole executive, and 
in 1816 declared 
supreme and per- 
p e t u a 1 Dictator. 
For the next twen- 
ty-five years he 
was the Govern- 
ment of Paraguay, 
and the people 
minded their own 
business. If they 
attempted to inter- 
fere, they were ex- 
ecuted. This con- 




GOING TO MARKET IN PARAGUAY. 



412 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

dition under Francia was not so bad. He refused to accept 
any money, except his bare living. He refused all presents, 
or, if he kept them, sent the donor their value in cash. He 
kept no books ; not a single Government record was found 
when he died. 

He knew that his power depended upon the friendship of the 
Indians, and he saw that strict justice was done them. The 
creole, white man and priest, were no friends of his. He did 
not allow them to speak his name. He was referred to as el 
Supremo. When he ordered a man executed, as soon as it 
was accomplished the order was returned to him and torn up. 
Foreigners were not permitted to enter the country without a 
special permit. He neither received nor sent ministers or con- 
suls to foreign countries. He was the only merchant, not for 
himself, but for the State. Two-thirds of all the cultivated land 
was worked by the State for the benefit of the people. The 
people were forced to furnish the labor. No foreign ships 
were allowed on the Paraguay River. He was very morose 
and quiet, never talking to any one. Afraid of Brazil, Argen- 
tina and Spain, he built up an army and organized the whole 
population on a defensive basis. When he died, seven hundred 
unexecuted political prisoners were released. The country had 
prospered under his rule, and they had enjoyed the benefits of 
peace and justice. Yet they had not improved otherwise. He 
was the kind of man necessary to govern the kind of people he 
had under him at that time. He died at the age of eighty-three, 
having been ill only three days. He never married. When 
asked to appoint a successor, he said : "What's the use ? Only 
the man who can hold down the job can rule." 

After several months of chaos, during which the army got 
tired of putting up and pulling down would-be rulers, the 
people tried to elect another Congress, and they did elect again 
two rulers, but in the end one of the two forced the other out 
and left as Dictator Lopez I. He was a farmer-lawyer, who, 
while Francia was alive, knew enough to be quiet and keep his 
head on his shoulders. He succeeded to all the absolute power 
of the first Dictator. He was a pretty decent sort. He freed all 
negro children born. He tried to frame a constitution, and he 
catered to foreigners. He wished for recognition by the other 







PARAGUAY 




A 










1 " 


Silvia 


dfRs 






■)&tev^]| 


r^F'l^ 


^»i^» 


'- • 



413 



THE CATHEDRAL, ASUNCION, PARAGUAY. 




A CITY OF THE DEAD IN ASUNCION. 



414 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Governments. Permission was granted to foreign ships to 
navigate the Paraguay River as far as Asuncion. Foreigners 
were permitted to enter the country, and trade with them was 
encouraged. Asuncion erected many modern buildings and re- 
sembled other capitals. 

Lopez I. objected to the shedding of blood. Justice was 
administered and life and property were safe. However, he 
was Dictator, and no one could have anything to do with the 
Government but himself and family. He loaned money to an 
American to bring a colony to grow tobacco, but got into a fuss 
with him. The 1 Voter Witch, a United States navy boat, ap- 
peared. He then forbade foreign war vessels the use of his 

rivers and harbors, and fired 
on the Water Witch, killing 
one man. The United States 
demanded cash and an apol- 
ogy, and got both. After 
that Lopez I. turned against 
foreigners, and many were 
the resulting complications. 
He then began to prepare 
his country for foreign in- 
vasion. He had three sons ; 
the oldest, Francisco, he 
trained for his successor. 
Francisco was Minister of War. The other two sons held 
Government positions. They were all very wild and reckless 
They took as many mistresses as they desired and enriched 
themselves from the public treasury. After eighteen months 
in European capitals, Francisco returned with a French mis- 
tress and a "swelled head." His father died in 1862 and 
Francisco Lopez became Lopez II. Poor Paraguayans, what 
did you ever do that you should be called upon to suffer so? 
There is no doubt that the French mistress of Lopez II. saw 
that her only chance to get away with a big lot of money would 
be in time of war, and so she urged him on to bring about war 
with Brazil. This resulted in war with Argentina and Uruguay 
at the same time, as he attempted to march his army through 
those countries without their consent. At the beginning: of 




A COUNTRY MANSION IN 
PARAGUAY. 



PARAGUAY 415 

this war the population of Paraguay was about 700,000 ; at the 
close it was 200,000 women and 25,000 old men and boys. 

The world's historians usually talk about how brave the 
people were, and how they died for Paraguay. I do not 
believe they were brave. They were driven to battle, and 
each soldier had orders to shoot any man who ran. Sur- 
rounded by executioners, it was pure cowardice that kept the 
soldiers in the firing line. I changed my mind about their 
bravery after I arrived in their country. They never had any- 
thing or anybody to fight for, except a Dictator, whom they 
never loved, and only feared. After the death and surrender of 
Lopez II. the allied armies remained in Paraguay. The Bra- 
zilian army remained seven years. Such a thing as honor and 
virtue became practically unknown. There were few mar- 
riages, ninety per cent of the children being illegitimate, and at 
the present time one sees many black-faced Paraguayans. 
From this stock, and the sailors who visited the river ports, this 
poor country has been repeopled. One should not expect too 
much of them. 

President Albino Jara, the Dictator while I was there, was 
the illegitimate son of a market woman and an Argentinian 
soldier. He was cruel, uneducated, except in the drill of 
soldiers, and made himself Dictator by practices not allowed 
in warfare of the present day. He held his position only through 
the power of the army, and copied after Lopez II. He was 
overthrown and lost his power in another revolution, a few 
weeks after I left Paraguay. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



LOPEZ AND LYNCH. 



IT IS asserted that for brevity nothing equals the story of the 
creation of the world, which is told in six hundred words. 
There is nothing remarkable about that, because at the begin- 
ning there were only one man and one woman. Had there been 
one thousand men and women it would probably have taken 
six hundred thousand words. 

In treating the history of Paraguay, past and present, I am 
going to break into the middle of it and work both ways, so 
you may better understand cause and effect. There is always 
a "reason why" for everything, be it good or bad, and Para- 
guay is really bad. I know at the start that it is going to take 
more than six hundred words to tell the story of Paraguay, but 




THE PALACE OF LOPEZ, NOW A HOTEL, ASUNCION, PARAGUAY. 

416 



PARAGUAY 417 

it is an interesting narrative, and the more I go into detail the 
better you will like it. 

Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, is possibly the oldest 
continuous settlement in South America, as it dates from 1526. 
The early history of this country is as reliable as South Ameri- 
can records will make it, but the history of the past century is 
largely hearsay. Few writers have visited this country, and 
no records or books were kept from 181 1 to 1850 by the first 
two Dictators, De Francia and Carlos Antonio Lopez, known 
as Lopez I. 

Forty years ago the world was startled by one of the most 
celebrated lawsuits ever tried before a Scotch jury. This law- 
suit brought to light, through the sworn testimony of reputable 
American, English, French and South American men and 
women, present in Paraguay during the long war with Brazil, 
Argentina and Uruguay, the practices of a despot, who mas- 
queraded under the title of President of a republic (which had 
never existed in fact), and the horrible conditions that existed 
in that so-called republic during a long-continued reign of 
terror. 

Francisco Solano Lopez, who succeeded his father as Pres- 
ident in 1862, and known as Lopez II., the Dictator, was con- 
stantly accompanied by his favorite mistress, Madam Lynch, 
a prostitute he had picked up in Paris, who not only coun- 
seled and advised him, but absolutely controlled him. History 
presents no parallel to this case in crime — murder, robbery, in- 
trigue, and the wrecking of a whole nation for a wanton 
woman. The historic love affair of Mark Antony and Cleo- 
patra seems heroic and beautiful when compared with that of 
Lopez and Lynch. 

Madam Lynch, through her position and influence with 
Lopez, could command the life and property of any person 
within the reach of the Dictator and his minions, whether 
citizens of Paraguay or foreigners — and she ordered executions 
and confiscations at the whim of the moment. Among 
others who fell under her displeasure was Dr. Stewart, the 
Scotch surgeon-general of the army. He had married a 
wealthy Paraguayan woman, a member of one of the old 
27 



4i8 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Spanish families, who refused to recognize the mistress of the 
Dictator as the first lady of the land. 

It is said that "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," 
and the worse the woman the more is she to be feared. Re- 
fusal to bow the knee to Madam Lynch was enough to merit 
death, which fate might be staved off indefinitely if the marked 
victim could produce a large sum of money as often as the 

Madam thought it 
should be forth- 
coming. 

As fast as Dr. 
Stewart, thro ugh 
the estate of his 
wife or otherwise, 
could get together 
a few thousand 
dollars, she de- 
manded his money 
or his life. Well, 
a Scotchman hates 
to part with these, 
especially his 
money, and the 
time came when he 
absolutely refused 
to give either. He 
left the country 
and went to Edin- 
burgh, where in 
1870 he was sued 
for payment of a 
draft for $20,000, 
which he had given 
to Madam Lynch 
while living in Par- 
aguay. He resist- 
ed payment on the 
ground of intimi- 
dation and no 




MADAM LYNCH AT THE AGE OF TWENTY. 



PARAGUAY 



419 



value, and won out, but the suit brought to light the terrible 
conditions that existed in Paraguay during the reign of Lopez 
and Lynch. 

Dr. Stewart was somewhat of a soldier of fortune, having 
been a first-class surgeon with the rank of captain in the 
Crimean War of 1855, and later was sent out by the English 
War Department to the River Plata and Argentina on a com- 
mission in 1856. In 1857, with the consent of the English 
Government, he accepted a position with the Paraguayan Gov- 
ernment to organize a military medical corps and medical col- 
lege at Asuncion. 

In June, 1864, when the long war broke out, he was made 
surgeon-general and had ready one hundred trained surgeons 
prepared for active duty in the field. He was the first doctor 
or surgeon outside of Edinburgh to use the Lister antiseptic, 
which is now in common use the world over in surgical opera- 
tions. 

Dr. Stewart is now eighty years of age and lives in a lovely 
big park on the edge of the city of Asuncion ; he is still quite 
active, and is so popular that he still continues his practice, 
although he has large estates. I had a letter of introduction to 




MR. BOYCE TAKING A PHOTOGRAPH OF DR. STEWART S HOUSE, 
ASUNCION, PARAGUAY. 



420 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

him, and was most cordially received and entertained. He re- 
counted much of the history of the regime of Lopez and Lynch, 
but said : "I want you to get your story from the sworn state- 
ments of witnesses at the trial, a copy of which I have, as 
printed in the court records." 

I read the entire proceedings of that historic trial, and 
from the records have condensed sufficient of the testimony to 
show how awful the conditions were in Paraguay from 1862 
to 1870. The first witness was the Hon. Charles Amos Wash- 
burn, formerly United States minister to Paraguay. (Mr. 
Washburn's brother was afterward Secretary of State during 
President Grant's second administration.) Mr. Washburn 
swore : 

"Lopez was a tyrant so absolute and cruel that everybody 
lived in perpetual fear. Several Americans, in fear of their 
lives, took refuge in my legation. I was called upon by Lopez 
to give them up, but refused; however, they were taken by 
force and shot. I thought it very doubtful if I got away with 
my life. I did not think they would publicly execute me, but 
I felt sure that they would assassinate or poison me, as my 
wife had refused to meet Madam Lynch, Lopez's mistress, 
who presided over Lopez's household and social entertain- 
ments. 

"Many of my official telegrams and letters to Washington 
were taken by Lopez and never got out of the country. I 
knew Dr. Stewart, having met him when I first reached Asun- 
cion in 1861. He was the surgeon-general of the Paraguayan 
army. I did not know Madam Lynch; she was the favorite 
mistress of Lopez. She was a woman of great self-control 
and avaricious ; she was very false and an awful liar. She 
was as bad as she could be!" 

The judge asked: "Could Dr. Stewart at that time have 
refused to sign a check for her?" 

Answer — "No. Neither Dr. Stewart nor any one else, ex- 
cept at the risk of his life. Dr. Stewart was not a favorite of 
Madam Lynch. He told me he gave her a 'bill of exchange.' " 

The next witness was George Frederick Masterman, of 
London, who testified as follows : 

"I went to Paraguay in October, i860, as chief military 



PARAGUAY 



421 



apothecary. After the death of his father, Francisco Solano 
Lopez became President. Many influential people were ar- 
rested by his orders and put into prison, where they died from 
torture, starvation or poison. The war with Brazil broke out 
in 1864, and after the first defeat Lopez declared he was sur- 
rounded by traitors. Many arrests were made and the 
tortures inflicted were terrible. The flogging was done by cor- 
porals, each giving ten blows, and from one hundred to two 
hundred blows were given each victim on the bare back. The 
greater number of those flogged died afterward. 




HOUSE IN ASUNCION ONCE OCCUPIED BY MADAM LYNCH, NOW 
USED AS BARRACKS. 



"I was very close to Lopez and knew him very well. He 
was very suspicious, and any one he suspected was doomed. 
He was very ambitious, and never changed his mind. Every 
person about him seemed to spy on the others. 

"I knew Madam Lynch, who was one of his mistresses ; 
she had great influence over Lopez, and always spoke against 
Dr. Stewart to him, telling him, among other things, that Dr. 
Stewart had tried to poison him. It was very dangerous to 
fall under the displeasure of Madam Lynch or Lopez, and the 



422 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

only way to avoid the greatest cruelty was to comply with their 
wishes at once. 

"I was arrested in 1868 on the allegation that I was a con- 
spirator against Lopez, at the same time that United States 
Minister Washburn was accused. Over eight hundred men, 
women. and children were arrested, mostly all from the besi. 
families, who refused to meet or recognize Madam Lynch. 
All of them, with the exception of six or seven, perished in 
some way. The judge was Father Roman, a priest. I was 
flogged, but I told him I was innocent. 

"He advised me to confess anyway, but I refused. He 
then called upon the soldiers to come with their muskets. My 
knees were drawn up and a musket placed beneath them ; 
then he put his foot on the back of my neck and forced my 
head down to the musket, and another musket was placed 
across the back of my neck and tied to the first. Being thus 
completely doubled up, I was again urged to confess, but on 
refusing I was released, only to be subjected to even greater 
torture by being bound to three muskets. Again I was urged 
by Father Roman to confess, and being almost dead, and 
knowing that even worse torture would follow, I concluded it 
would be better to make a false confession than to die such a 
miserable death. 

"Dr. Stewart was also forced to write a letter accusing 
some people of being concerned in the conspiracy. People 
were forced to sell their property to Madam Lynch for paper 
money that was worth nothing, to save their lives. She 
printed all the money she wanted and everybody had to accept 
it. I personally know several people who were so coerced. 
Dr. Stewart told me of Madam Lynch's demand for a bill of 
exchange for $20,000, and I advised him to give it and save 
his life. The country when I escaped was utterly devastated 
and reduced to great misery." 

On being interrogated the witness said: "Yes, I knew of 
the poisoning of Mr. Atherton, the British merchant, who was 
suspected of being connected with the conspiracy against Lopez. 
Some of the ladies of the better class made presents of rare 
lace and jewelry to Madam Lynch, thus securing the release of 
members of their families from prison." 



PARAGUAY 



423 



An important piece of evidence was a deposition by Sefiora 
Juana Inocencia Lopez de Barrios, a sister of Lopez, which was 
substantially as follows : 

"I was married in 1856, and my husband was a colonel in 
the army. He joined the troops in the field after the war 
began with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. He was arrested 
and put in prison in 1868 on the false charge of corresponding 
with a Brazilian officer. He was horribly tortured in prison 
because he would not confess the charge was true. 

"Whenever my brother was defeated in battle he always 
claimed some one had betrayed him and that he was sur- 
rounded by traitors. The officers and others thus accused were 
nearly always members of the families that refused to recog- 
nize Madam Lynch. I was imprisoned by my brother, the 
late President, because he said Madam Lynch told him I had 
favored my brother Marshall for President, I always be- 
lieved she invented the charges against my husband and broth- 
er because our family could not recognize her. My husband, 
my brother, Benigno Lopez, and others were shot in my pres- 
ence by order of my brother, Francisco, the President. 

"My brother Francisco brought Madam Lynch to Para- 
guay in 1856. Her bad reputation had preceded her. She 
employed all. her influence to involve the country in war and 
worked incessantly to demoralize the people. While drunk 
she would dance in the public plaza with the common people 
to popularize herself with the lower classes. My father, who 
was the President, did not recognize her, I think his hatred 
for foreigners had its beginning here. After his death and 
my brother became President her influence became very 
strong. Everybody feared her. She was ambitious and 
greedy. She said a fortune teller had assured her she would 
be a queen some day. 

"I was put in prison with my sister Rafeala, being badly 
treated and terribly tortured ; I was released to see my hus- 
band and brother shot, and then rearrested and kept in prison 
until January of this year. Only two months before our es- 
cape, my brother, sister and myself were arrested and put in 
prison. It is my opinion that Madam Lynch invented the 
story of Dr. Stewart's attempting to poison the President. 



424 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



"She had Pancha Garmenda, a most respected young lady, 
lanced to death ; my brother admired her, and Madam Lynch 
was jealous of her as a rival. Neither position nor innocence 
could shield any person from her vengeance. Madam Lynch 
forced my mother to give her 1,000 ounces of gold, which she 




TOMB BUILT BY LOPEZ FOR HIS OWN USE, 
BUT NEVER FINISHED. 



gave General MacMahone, who succeeded Mr. Washburn as 
United States minister." 

Interrogated — "Did any respectable people associate with 
Madam Lynch?" 

Answer — "Yes, later on, through fear of her vindictive 



PARAGUAY 425 

character. Most of the best families had been wiped out of 
existence. Every member of my husband's family and my 
own, except my mother, sister and self, had been either flogged 
or lanced to death, or shot. 

"Dr. Stewart was married to Seiiora Venancia Triay, 
one of the richest heiresses in Paraguay, and by his marriage 
to her became owner of several large and well-stocked es- 
tancias. No married woman owns property in Paraguay." 

Interrogated — "Why did your brother, the late President, 
not marry Madam Lynch? I believe it has been testified that 
they had five children which he recognized." 

Answer — "Because she was already married and has a 
husband living, who is a surgeon in the French army. An- 
other reason would be that she could own no property if mar- 
ried to my brother, and he has placed millions in her name." 

Interrogated — "Did your brother fear her?" 

Answer — "Yes, he feared to let her get out of the country 
while he was alive. During the last few months of the hope- 
less war she frequently tried to get away, but he always kept 
her with him in the camp." 

Lieutenant-Colonel and Surgeon Cirillo Solalindo, of Asun- 
cion, who had known Lopez all his life, and who was with 
him to within fifteen days of the time he was captured by the 
Brazilian army and speared to death while trying to escape, 
testified : 

"I knew Lopez and Lynch very well. He domineered over 
his father when he was President. The judges had to receive 
their instructions from him and decide as he willed whether 
it was according to law or not. His will was law. 

"He used to say to his officers that there was no use to 
bring a burden into the camp ; that they might bring a prisoner 
or two to give information, but to kill the rest. He was 
neither a soldier nor a general. I thought him a great coward. 
He was very cunning. A simple list of persons murdered by 
his orders would fill a volume. 

"Madam Lynch was a married woman and a Parisian 
prostitute, who lived with him as his mistress. She sent an 
order to the President's mother to come and dine with her; 
the old lady refused ; I was present when the servant returned 



426 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

with the answer. She complained to Lopez and he cast his 
mother into prison. After the President's brother was shot 
by his order, Madam Lynch carried the dead man's watch. 

"She took the valuable jewels of the Church and had them 
set up for herself. To my knowledge she took between 3,000 
and 4,000 ounces of gold from the treasury of the Govern- 
ment and gave it to General MacMahone, the new United 
States minister, who is here now testifying for her. 

"The chickens, tobacco, fruit, etc., sent by friends to the 
soldiers, she took, selling part, and presenting the balance, in 
her own name, to the sick in the hospitals. When salt was 
very scarce and worth its weight in gold, and the soldiers had 
no bread, only meal without salt, she had 10,000 bags belong- 
ing to the Government, and she sold it at exorbitant rates. 
Many died for want of salt. 

"There were hundreds of executions between 1866 and 
1870. Lopez ordered three men shot because Madam Lynch 
reported to him one of his cigars had been stolen and her maid 
had found a soldier smoking the butt of a cigar. Not certain 
which of the three men was guilty, as all denied the crime, he 
shot them all. 

"I knew a junior officer who spoke to Madam Lynch on 
the street one day, asking her to intercede for his superior of- 
ficer, who was under arrest. She promised to speak to Lopez. 
The next morning the young officer was arrested and shot for 
having deigned to speak to Madam Lynch. In a big village 
in the center of a forest Lopez collected about 12,000 women 
and children ; all but 450 died of starvation." 

If the tales above told were not corroborated by some 
twenty-five witnesses under oath, it would be impossible to 
believe that at the close of the nineteenth century such things 
could happen. The only witness produced to testify in favor 
of this murderous wanton, I regret to say, was an American — 
General MacMahone, who (mis) represented the United States 
as minister the last year of the war. He testified that he 
dined daily with this shameless, cruel, criminal woman and her 
half-crazed, tyrannical Satanic paramour— Dictator Lopez — 
and that they were of good moral character and well thought of 
in Paraguay ! 



PARAGUAY 



427 



As I stated in a previous chapter, at the close of the war 
there remained alive 200,000 women and 25,000 old men and 
boys, out of a population of 700,000 six years before. The 
country was overrun with Brazilian and Argentinian soldiers, 
who did as they pleased. Nearly every virtuous woman who 
could escape, got out of the country, and only the unfortunates 
were left. 

Ten women to one old man or boy! No morals, no laws, 
no property, no rights ! From such a stock and from such a 
deplorable condition Paraguay started over again. 




A VIEW ILLUSTRATING HOW FEW MEN THERE ARE IN PARAGUAY. 



I will tell the reader the plain, unvarnished facts about this 
country. At the time I was in Paraguay there had not been a 
newspaper man from the United States in this "republic" for 
twenty years, and only one American within six months. 

All telegrams were passed upon by the police and it was 
just as well to send letters to the postoffice unsealed ; they 
would be read anyhow, and if nothing objectionable was found 
they would be allowed to go forward ; otherwise they would 
be destroyed and the writer placed under surveillance or ar- 



428 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

rested, according to the gravity of the contents of the letters. 

The whole country was under martial law — or, as they say 
there, "ima state of siege." Less than 1,000 people celebrated 
their centennial — the iooth anniversary of the date when the 
country was freed from the yoke of Spain — which occurred 
while I was in Asuncion, and which fact, as indicating the 
awful conditions of the country, speaks for itself. 

I will only add that Madam Lynch admitted getting $250,- 
000 in gold out of the country during the war, which she held 
as her own. She died in Paris ten years ago — a poverty- 
stricken, wretched old woman ! 



T 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PARAGUAY TODAY. 

'HERE are few or no reliable statistics obtainable on Para- 
_L guay for the past forty years. The Government is run as 
a separate private business by the man who can by force and 
fraud elect himself President or Dictator. The people have 
nothing to say about governmental affairs, and, so far as I 
could learn, cared only to keep out of the army and revolu- 
tions. The revenues forced from the people are appropriated 
by each succeeding administration, each one getting away with 
all the money it can. The President, of course, does well, 
while he can keep his head on his shoulders and hold his 
position. 

The country has no credit abroad, and the Government 
cannot secure credit for anything at home ; therefore the for- 
eign and local debt is small and never paid. Thirty-five 
million dollars in paper has been issued, worth practically noth- 
ing. This paper money passes locally for eight cents on the 
dollar, but has no value outside the republic. They have no 
gold or silver coin. The Bank of the Republic is supposed to 
have $700,000 in gold to redeem $35,000,000 in paper; this 
would make, if true, the paper money worth two cents on the 
dollar. The export duty on green hides is one dollar each. 
There are 300,000 hides supposed to be exported, and the reve- 
nue derived added annually to the redemption fund. However, 
as there are 4,000,000 cattle in the country, it is unreasonable to 
believe that only 300,000 hides are sent out each year. If the 
President of the republic did not have to pay the army regu- 
larly he could soon get enough ahead to live abroad the balance 
of his life. The Government admits that there is collected 
$10,000,000 gold annually from imports, and as hides and 
mate tea pay export duties, the balance in favor of the Presi- 
dent ought to be quite handsome. 

429 



43Q 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



The population is estimated at 500,000, but there never 
was a reliable census taken. There is little doubt that there 
are three females to one male. There were three Presidents, 
or Dictators, during the first sixty years of the republic, and 
twenty-one during the last forty years. They had three Presi- 
dents during the nineteen months 
previous to my visit, and have had 
two since I left, up to going to 
press with this book. Only two 
Presidents in the last forty years 
served out their full terms. 

There is a Congress composed 
of two houses, the same as in the 
United States. When the mem- 
bers of Congress do not do what 
the President wants them to he 
puts them in jail. One day, while 
I was in Asuncion, all he could 
catch of them were jailed. What 
became of them no one knows. 
They are supposed to have a con- 
stitution, and it must be as good as 
new, for they never use it. The 
election of the last two Presidents, 
previous to my visit, will illustrate 
the system. 

A few years ago, an ignorant 
but well-drilled Paraguayan sol- 
dier, Albino Jara, had risen to be 
the colonel in command of the 
army — the highest military posi- 
tion. No President would last a 
minute without the army, which 
consists of 2,000 regulars and 3,000 
— not so regular — and 600 police. 
The rotation in office is from Min- 
ister of War to President, and 
from Commander of the Army to 
Minister of War. Of course, four 

THE LATE PRESIDENT 
JARA, DICTATOR OF 
PARAGUAY. 




PARAGUAY 



431 




SOLDIERS ON PARADE, ASUNCION, PARAGUAY. 



years is a long time to wait to become President, when life 
is so short. Jara soon said to the Minister of War, "Why don't 
you do it now?" Meaning run the President off. He, Jara, 
would then be Minister of War. So they prepared the resig- 
nation of the President, they surrounded him with half a 
dozen revolvers, and asked him if he did not think he ought 
to resign for the good of his country? He thought the sug- 
gestion well grounded. He did not need to call a stenog- 
rapher to write out his resignation, but signed the one already 
prepared for him, and "beat it" for a safer country. The 
Minister of War was duly elected President and Jara became 
Minister of War. Events then ran along smoothly for a 
while. Then one day Jara got drunker than usual and con- 
cluded to repeat the order of exercises, and on the 18th 
day of January, 191 1, backed by the 2,000 regular army 
and 600 police, he elected himself not only President of the 
republic, but also general in command of the army and of the 
police. That seemed to be rather overdoing it, and not accord- 



432 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



ing to precedent, and it caused a split in the army. .Then the 
killing began, while all the rest of the male population of 
Asuncion and Paraguay "lit out" for the woods until the revo- 
lution should be over. 

The foreign citizens not subject to kidnaping during war 
or revolution — and there are 30,000 in Paraguay, mostly in 
Asuncion — just close up their stores and banks and shops in 
haste, and stay indoors until such time as the shooting and 
executions are over. 

As I said before, there was a split in the army and a nasty 
revolution that lasted for two months. In the first battle 700 
were killed, no prisoners taken on either side, and every 
wounded man, unable to get away, was clubbed with the butt 
of the rifle or bayoneted to death. There was no use for 
hospitals, nor did they have any, or any surgeons, when the 
war began. After awhile, however, the Salvation Army (you 
find them all over South America doing splendid work), got 
permission to establish a hospital. I was told by one of their 




SOLDIERS OF PARAGUAY ON THE MARCH. 



PARAGUAY 



433 



nurses that they picked up a boy, supposed to be dead, on the 
battlefield and brought him back to life. He turned out to be 
a revolutionist and was taken out of the hospital and shot. 
He was fourteen years old. 

The system of keeping soldiers from deserting during a 
fight is purely Paraguayan, as I remarked before, and was 
first put into effect by Lopez II. Each man is under orders to 
shoot any one seen running away. It is quite effective, as a 
soldier under this system is in greater danger if he tries to 
desert than if he stays in battle. Of course, the only soldiers 
paid are those working for the Government, and the others 
soon get tired, and when the ammunition they have on hand is 
used up, they always give up the fight and "light out" for some 
other country — Argentina, Brazil, or Uruguay. Over 100,000 




THE HOTEL DINING-ROOM IN WHAT WAS 

ONCE THE PALACE OF LOPEZ, 

ASUNCION, PARAGUAY. 



28 



434 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Paraguayans are now living out of their country. They do 
not dare go back. All revolutionists caught are shot, and "a 
state of siege," which means all laws are suspended, gives the 
President a good chance to execute all his enemies, on the pre- 
text that they are revolutionists. 

Under these conditions, as one may imagine, the people 
are rather nervous. Some one shot off haif a dozen cannon 
crackers, smuggled into Asuncion, and over one-half the men 
could not be found for two weeks. Of course, the men do no 
work and are hardly missed by the women, who do all the work. 
I will give the reader an illustration of how wrought up and 
nervous the people are. Although Asuncion has 80,000 people 
(it had 100,000 five years ago), the city has no sewers or city 
water, but depends upon wells. Hence I always drank Apol- 
linaris water. Upon one occasion a waiter opened a bottle for 
me that was so highly charged wjth gas it went off like a gun, 
and half the people in the dining-room jumped up, and some of 
them ran out. Naturally I was a good deal amused. 

When martial law is not in force — which is seldom — the 
judges must do as they are ordered by the President, or lose 
their positions, and usually their heads at the same time. While 




A STREET CAR IN ASUNCION, PARAGUAY. 



PARAGUAY 435 

I was in Asuncion the editor and publisher of the oldest paper 
objected to President Jara changing the date of the centennial 
anniversary of the republic, and his paper was not allowed to 
be printed. He was taken out of the city by some soldiers, 
without any kind of trial — court martial or otherwise. He 
finally grew exhausted from walking, and told them if they 
were going to shoot — to shoot him then and there. The sol- 
diers came back without him. That is all we could learn. 

I had a long talk with President Jara at the Government's 
palace. He wore his uniform, and is a well-put-up soldier. 
He knows nothing about governmental affairs, and can hardly 
read or write. He told me he was very anxious to establish 
relations with foreign countries. They now have members of 
legation from but three countries, the United States being one 
of these. President Jara also said they desired foreign immi- 
gration. I told him he was not likely to get many people to 
come to Paraguay. He asked me why. I told him life in his 
country was too uncertain. He assured me that he would 
now give the people good government, and that there would 
be no more revolutions. I told him that the health of the 
people must be looked after, that the mortality among children 
was too great, four having died in one block, the day before, 
of diphtheria, because there was no diphtheritic serum in 
Asuncion. He wanted to know "what that was." And this 
was the President of the so-called republic, with 500,000 help- 
less people at his mercy ! 

Deaths among children equal forty per cent, largely from 
blood diseases, inherited from their parents. There are few 
marriages, the average of the estimate I made of illegitimacy 
among Paraguayans (not foreigners) being ninety per cent. I 
was in one village where the population consisted of six men, 
thirty-seven women and forty-four children. They have a few 
hospital buildings, but these are closed. They have well equipped 
laboratories for medical and scientific purposes without any 
one in charge. There are few schools, and the university is 
used as military barracks. The university building was for- 
merly the residence of Madam Lynch. 

There is not much drunkenness, because the people are too 
poor to buy cane rum. There are few holidays, there being 



436 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



only six national holidays. Little attention is paid to Church 
holidays or the Church. The nominal State Church is the 
Roman Catholic. It is promised State financial aid, but is 
unable to collect the same. 

I found one old American, still a citizen of the United 
States, and drawing a pension from Uncle Sam as a Mexican 
War veteran, who was living with about twenty women and 




A RURAL HOME IN PARAGUAY. THERE ARE THREE WOMEN TO 
ONE MAN EVERYWHERE IN THIS COUNTRY. 



had a large family of children and grandchildren. They were 
all seemingly happy. He had been in the country forty years, 
had prospered, but never did a day's work. The women do 
practically all the work. There are ten Americans in Para- 
guay, so far as our consul could learn, but only one had 
registered and signified his intention of returning to the 
United States. The people here have a blind faith in the 



PARAGUAY 



437 



United States, and believe that if we would only intercede, all 
their troubles (which are purely internal) would end. Minister 
Morgan (now transferred to Brazil) was credited to both 
Uruguay and Paraguay. He made his headquarters in 
Montevideo, Uruguay. He happened to visit Paraguay offi- 
cially once during a revolution, and both sides told so many 
stories about how he had come to take their part, that each side 
'o the quarrel got frightened and ceased fighting. 

The interests of Uncle Sam — and they are not many — when 
I was there were being looked after by United States Consul 
Cornelius Ferris from Fort Collins, Colorado. He had his 
wife and daughter with him. They were living a very isolated 
life. Only ten Governments out of forty-eight in the world 
have any representation of any kind here. Three of these ten 
representatives brought their families ; two of them have since 
sent their families home, and the seven single men, or grass- 
widowers, live as the natives do. 

United States Consul Ferris is one of the best men I have 
ever met in the service. He secured for me a permit to leave 
the country. I never had to secure such a document before, 
except in Russia, during the war with Japan. In Paraguay 
there is no such thing as liberty of speech or press. However, 




RESIDENCE OF UNITED STATES CONSUL FERRIS, AT 
ASUNCION, PARAGUAY. 



438 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

there is not much crime. The people are simply lazy, and 
life is so easy and their wants so few it would be rather too 
much trouble to murder or steal. There is no jealousy or 
competition, even in love affairs. Even the funerals are simple. 
When a child dies, for instance, the mother puts the coffin on 
her head and trudges along to the cemetery, sitting down fre- 
quently to rest, smoke and talk. They seem not to mind death. 
Life for them is short and a thing not particularly prized. 

It seems a sin and a crime that this beautiful country, with 
rich soil, normal and sure rainfall, midway between the Atlantic 
and the Pacific, with an elevation of 2,500 feet above sea 
level, producing nearly every variety of food products raised 
in South or North America, should be brought to such a 
wretched state. It is so easy to gain a living from the soil, and 
so little work is necessary, that the people do practically noth- 
ing. Very fine oranges grow everywhere and are sold four 
for one cent, while bananas are plentiful and of very fine 
flavor, and are but twenty-five cents a bunch. Good tobacco 
grows wild and uncultivated. Ten cigars can be bought for 
one cent. Indian corn grows wherever it is planted. Corn is 
the chief grain diet of the people. There is fresh green grass, 
sweet the year around, and cattle, particularly free from foot 
and mouth disease, roam everywhere. Yet the people will not 
make butter. Too much work. The reason cattle and sheep 
do so well is on account of the rolling, well-drained country 
and elevation, which gives cool nights, and the absence of 
swamps. Three crops of every kind of vegetable are grown 
every year, if wanted or needed. Some wheat is grown, also 
oats, but grain crops are too much trouble. 

I told my servant to go to the wonderful market in Asun- 
cion and make a list of 100 different things to eat offered for 
sale. He did so, and said he could have made a much longer 
list. The four chief sources of income are from the exportation 
of yerba (or mate) tea, quebracho wood, oranges, and especially 
the products of cattle — sun-dried meat, meat extracts and hides. 

Yerba, or mate, or, as it is frequently called, Paraguay tea, 
takes the place of tea or coffee with the natives of Paraguay, 
Argentina and Uruguay, and is extensively sold all over South 
America and to some extent in Europe. The largest company 






PARAGUAY 439 

in Paraguay is capitalized for $3,500,000 gold and owns 5,585,- 
000 acres of forest where the yerba tree or bush grows. The 
tree is from six to twelve feet high, and the green leaves, with 
the small branches, are pulled off every fourth year. They 
are then raked up and put into bunches, and look much as if one 
had been raking up the yard in the fall. They are then dried 
by placing them in a building, with a fire made from a par- 
ticular kind of wood outside the building, the heat being con- 
ducted under the floor and coming up through the opening 
over which the leaves are scattered. Great care must be taken 
in drying the leaves, or the tea may be spoiled. The leaves are 
then easily separated from the small branches and are taken to a 
mill, where they are ground into a flour and put up in two- 
pound packages. The Paraguay Industrial Society puts up 
12,000,000 pounds a year, and it sells at the factory at wholesale 
for twenty-five cents for two pounds. The tea is made by 
putting some of the powder-like flour into a cup and pouring 
very hot water over it, then it is sucked through a tube called a 
bombilla, about eight inches long, with a strainer at one end to 
prevent the small particles reaching the mouth. It is rather 
bitter, but I liked it. It is not used with sugar. One English 
doctor told me he had used it himself for forty years, and con- 
sidered it very much less injurious to head or heart than tea or 
coffee, while it gave great strength and endurance to the nerves. 
The industry gives employment to thousands of natives. It is 
nearly all "piece work." 

There is no census on the cattle industry, but the average 
of six estimates I took showed that there were 4,000,000 head in 
all Paraguay, and I consider this moderate. Of course, the dis- 
tance from markets for the products and the crude way of doing- 
things, as well as the lack of breeding the cattle up, does not 
place the business where it ought to be, yet the average value for 
three-year-old cattle is $15 per head. The total annual value is 
about $15,000,000, and of course, is the chief source of wealth. 
Beef extract and dried or "jerked" beef are made, no fresh 
meat being exported, owing to lack of ice. There are no cold 
storage plants in the country and no refrigerator cars or ships. 
Hides are exported green. 

Lumber or timber is a big industry. There are many fine 



440 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



hard woods, but they are so heavy, and transportation from 
the interior is so limited and expensive, not much is taken out. 
However, two companies from the United States are taking 
out the quebracho timber, used in tanning leather. In some 
cases they ship the logs, in others they reduce the wood to. saw- 
dust, and in still other places they make the tannery extract, 
or liquor, on the ground. The last method seems the most 
reasonable. I understand the Americans are doing well, and 
no doubt will do so as long as they can keep in with the Gov- 
ernment or change as fast as the administrations do. 

Fine, sweet oranges grow everywhere, as I have stated, 
and every boat going down the river is loaded with them. The 
new all-rail connection, from Asuncion through Paraguay 
and the Entre Rios country to Buenos Aires, will deliver 
oranges and all tropical fruits to the seacoast ports in two 
days. This puts Paraguay in connection with the outside 
world. Transportation by boats is the worst I ever used, the 
food is horrid, the beds dirty and vermin-infested. Any per- 
son going to Paraguay should go by train. 

Land is cheap in Paraguay, especially in the Chaco coun- 
try, which was supposed until recently to be only swampy. 




RAILWAY STATION AT ASUNCION, PARAGUAY. 



PARAGUAY 



441 




BAGS OF ORANGES READY FOR SHIPMENT IN PARAGUAY. 



The Chaco was formerly occupied by a very bad lot of In- 
dians, who killed off the settlers. This condition is much 
better now, and I found a number of prosperous settlements in 
the Chaco and very fine grazing lands for cattle. 

Paraguay is not today a "white man's" country, and will 
not become so until Argentina and Brazil take the country, 
divide it up and give it a good Government. After the war 
with Brazil and Argentina, Paraguay acknowledged a debt of 
$300,000,000 to Brazil and $200,000,000 to Argentina. There 
has never been a cent of principal or interest paid. Brazil says 
to Argentina, "You take Paraguay and pay to us the debt she 
owes us." Argentina says to Brazil, "You take Paraguay and 
pay us what is due us." And there it stands. It is the case 
of a man owing so much he cannot fail. The people of 
Paraguay cannot govern themselves. They have lost the basis 
or unit on which a Government is built — that of the family. The 



442 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

sooner the country is taken over and properly governed the 
better for the poor people who live there in sin and ignorance, 
and the better for the reputation of every other republic in 
South America, for the people of other nations read about the 
never-ending troubles and chaotic conditions of Paraguay, and 
apply the impression gained to all South America, which is not 
deserved. 

Good-by, Paraguay ! You are a plague spot, you are hope- 
less, and you ought to be quarantined. The sooner your name 
disappears from the map the better for the remainder of the 
world ! 



BRAZIL 

Area, 3,218,991 square miles, a little larger than the entire 
United States, without Alaska — Its Atlantic seacoast line 
is nearly 4,000 miles in length, its extreme width from east 
to west being nearly 3,500 miles — Population, about 22,- 
000,000, between one-third and one-half white — Its natural 
resources are almost incalculable in extent, consisting of 
all field grains, coffee, rubber, sugar, tobacco, cotton, live 
stock, yerba mate, cacao, nuts, fruits, fine zvoods, and dia- 
mond, gold and iron mines — Exports (igio) , $310,006,438 ; 
imports, $235,574,837 — Exports to United States (ion), 
$100,867,184; imports from United States, $27,240,146 — 
Army, peace footing, 28,000, war footing, 100,000, esti- 
mated; navy, 38 ships, with 8,800 officers and men — 
Capital, Rio de Janeiro, popidation, 1,000,000. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

brazil's coffee industry. 
T WAS a pleasant noonday when I left Montevideo, Uru- 



I 



guay, for Santos, Brazil, and I was reminded of the evening 
when, on my way to South Africa, I sailed from the Bay of 
Naples, Italy, for Mombasa, Africa, via the Suez Canal; for 
Montevideo is a haven for the Italian immigrant, who, with his 
picturesque raiment, is everywhere present in that city, finding 
there the balmy air of his native land and general conditions 
that exactly suit him. 

The distance from Montevideo to Santos is about 1,000 
miles, and though there are a number of ports between these 
two places, I decided to go to Santos, and then work inland, 
south, north, and east, because the other ports are small, inac- 
cessible to large ships, and in some instances not connected with 
the interior by railways. 

Looking at the map of South America one would naturally 
suppose that the coast from Montevideo to Santos is a smooth, 
unbroken line that comes down to the water in a gradual de- 
cline—but it is really just the opposite, being much like the 

443 



444 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



coast of Labrador at the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
or the banks along the Straits of Magellan. 

The rocky headlands of the mountains, sometimes bare and 
sometimes clad with verdure, come right down to the water 
line, and in many places project far out into the sea. Sub- 
merged in some places, the highlands crop up in others, form- 
ing little islands that make this rugged coast dangerous to 
navigation and necessitating many lighthouses along the shore. 

For nearly three days we were practically lost to the world, 
for owing to the fact that two wireless telegraph companies were 
desirous of operating in Brazil, and the Government had not 
yet decided from which it could get the more money, neither 
was doing much business, so our ship could not connect with 
land. 

But the cable service was evidently working nicely, for on 
our arrival at Santos we found the American consul, Mr. J. 
White, and his assistant, Mr. J. W. Reves, awaiting us on the 
docks, Mr. Morgan, the American minister to Uruguay and 




A GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY / 



BRAZIL 



445 



Paraguay, who has since been promoted to the position of 
ambassador to Brazil, having cabled that we were en route. 

This example of courtesy on the part of our representatives 
abroad is only a sample of the consideration Uncle Sam's ex- 
cellent diplomatic corps in South America gives to the traveler 
from the United States in this land, and it goes far to make a 
tour of the country pleasant, and incidentally gives our nation 
prestige in the eyes of our South American cousins. 

My introduction to Santos in particular and Brazil in gen- 
eral was further facilitated by a letter given me in Buenos 
Aires by Senor Domicio da Gama, then minister from Brazil 
to Argentina, and now ambassador from Brazil to the United 
States. In brief, he requested the representatives of the Brazil- 
ian Government to accord me the same consideration that is 
shown foreign guests of the nation, which, in addition to many 
other courtesies, admitted our baggage without inspection. 

This last-named courtesy may seem of small importance to 
the reader, but to the traveler in Brazil it is of some conse- 




RBOR OF SANTOS, BRAZIL. 



44<3 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

quence. Once a foreigner has passed a port of entry in the 
United States he may go from State to State without molesta- 
tion by custom officials, but the twenty States of Brazil have, 
or are permitted to use, an authority greater than we are ac- 
customed to, and "States' rights" in Brazil is no theory, but an 
actual fact, even extending to questioning the foreigner as he 
passes from one State to another. 

It is odd how the ideas one gains of a country during school 
days will cling to him until, in after years, he visits that coun- 
try and has them rudely jolted by the advances that have been 
made since he was struggling with geographical boundaries and 
descriptions under the schoolmaster's eyes. 

This greatest republic of the South American continent, 
which is as large as all Europe, and larger than the United 
States, has always been an object of interest to me — not 
alone from the stories I had read as a boy of the wonderful 
parrots, its birds of paradise, big snakes, its great rivers, its 
savage Indians, and other wonders ; but because it is the only 
political division of the Western Hemisphere that ever had a 
monarch of its own, and, settled a century before colonization 
was attempted in the United States, was over a century be- 
hind us in establishing a republic, and copied our Constitution 
almost verbatim when it shook off its royal family. Like the 
United States, it imported the blacks of Africa as slaves, and 
like the United States, it freed them by a stroke of the pen, 
without compensation to their owners, the advisability of 
which act is questioned to this day, even the blacks themselves 
agreeing it would have been better for them, as well as their 
former owners, had abolition been effected gradually and with 
compensation. 

Santos, the port of entry to the State of Sao Paulo, was 
founded by Braz Cubas in 1543. It now has a population of 
about 100,000, and is one of the busiest places in South Amer- 
ica. The harbor is one of the most important and best of the 
entire continent, being from twenty-eight to thirty feet deep, 
and its docks are three miles long. These are owned by a pri- 
vate corporation, and afford every facility for loading and un- 
loading vessels. Solid trains of cars are run upon the docks 
and electric cranes transfer freight from cars to ships. 



BRAZIL 



447 




LOADING COFFEE FOR THE UNITED STATES MARKET, 
SANTOS, BRAZIL. 



The commonest sight in Santos is coffee. No matter which 
way you turn or where you go coffee looms up in some form or 
other. If you walk down a street you see drays going by 
laden with sacks of the berry; if you go near the railroads 
you see train loads of it ; if you go to the docks you see ships 
being laden with it; if you go into a cafe it is served to you 
instead of the drinks usually found in such places. You smell 
coffee everywhere. 

Perspiring teamsters and laborers, who in our United States 
would hunt for the "biggest and coolest beer in town" slip into 
some cafe with a sanded floor for a "swig" of coffee. Ladies 
and gentlemen out for a promenade stop in some cafe and sip 
coffee instead of ice cream soda. The cocktail and the highball 
are practically unknown, and conviviality finds good fellowship 
in the coffee cup. 

If all this excites the reader to wonder, it is explained when 
he learns that practically all of the coffee of the Western world 
comes from Brazil, and most of that supply comes from the 



44* 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



State of Sao Paulo. So, you see, a very large percentage of the 
coffee for the entire world goes through the city of Santos on 
its way to the tables of millions of people in far-away lands. 

Coffee .is said to be native to Abyssinia, and its name is 
derived from the Arabic qahwe, pronounced "kahveh" by the 
Turks. It has been known to history since the third century, 
but up to the fifteenth century it was eaten in the form of paste, 
the dilution to a liquid form spreading gradually until it became 
the common practice. 




A STREET IN SANTOS, BRAZIL. 



There are two stories concerning its introduction into South 
America, one saying a deserter brought some seeds from Cay- 
enne to Para in 1761, the other that a Belgian monk introduced 
some plants at Rio de Janeiro in 1774. Perhaps both stories 
are true, but up to the end of the eighteenth century coffee was 
only considered as a medicine to stimulate the nerves, and was 
to be found only in drug stores. About 1835 tne people of 
South America discovered that coffee was used as a beverage 




A COFFEE TREE IN BLOSSOM, BRAZIL. 



29 



45° 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



in other countries and extensive cultivation of this valuable 
berry was begun. 

Coffee thrives in a hot, moist climate, and on rich, well- 
drained soil, and the State of Sao Paulo, possessing the proper 
qualities, has become the coffee garden of the world. The two 
things most injurious to a coffee tree's growth are cold or hot 
dry winds. 

While there are about eighty species of the coffee-berry tree, 
only three are raised in Brazil, and of these the common coffee 
tree greatly predominates because of its general excellence. 
The plant is propagated from seed, which is usually planted in 
a nursery, and when the plants are about fifteen inches high 
they are transplanted, being placed in the ground from ten to 
fifteen feet apart and protected from the tropical sun. As a 
rule, the shrub first flowers in its third year, and bears a small 
quantity, but not until its fifth year does it bear any considerable 
amount of berries. At twenty years the tree is in its prime, 
although I saw trees seventy-five years old still bearing. The 
flower is quite pretty, but its life is seldom over twenty-four 




COFFEE BERRIES ON THE TREES, BRAZIL. 



BRAZIL 



45 1 



hours, and as soon as it withers and drops the green berry- 
begins to form, and it usually ripens in about seven months, 
when it strongly resembles a ripe cherry. 

The Arabs allow the berries to remain on the tree until they 
ripen and fall, but I observed that on all the plantations, or 
fazendas, I visited in Brazil, the picking was done by hand. A 
large sheet was placed under each tree, and then men mounted 
ladders, or standing on the ground, carefully pulled all the 
berries from the trees, allowing them to fall upon the sheets. 
From these they are gathered up and deftly sifted by women 




PICKING COFFEE ON A PLANTATION, BRAZIL. 



and girls, to remove stems, leaves, etc., after which they are 
placed in baskets and hauled elsewhere for further treatment. 

The berries, as gathered, each contain normally two seeds 
or coffee beans. Each bean is enveloped by a thin, delicate 
silver skin, and outside this by a parchment, and both are in- 
closed in the fleshy pulp of the outer portion of the fruit. All 
of these coverings have to be removed to prepare the beans for 
consumption. 

The berries when brought from the field are placed in large 



452 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



tanks and washed there in running water, after which they are 
run through a "pulper" and then into a tank where the pulps 
float off, leaving the seeds. These latter are then put through 
a process of fermentation to remove the parchment, after which 
they are put into vats and washed, and then they are spread 
out upon- a stone or concrete floor to dry. The bean is still 
enveloped in its silver skin, which is removed by winnowing 
and rubbing, and then it is ready to be run through the sorter, 
which grades the beans according to size. The product is then 
ready for weighing and sacking, needing only to be roasted and 
ground to be ready for the pot. 

The principal coffee-growing districts of Brazil are all in- 
cluded in the four States of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas 
Geraes and Espirito Santo, but as stated before, Sao Paulo is 
the seat of the real industry. In a five-year annual average the 
world's crop was 15,845,000 bags; of this Sao Paulo produced 
9,260,000 bags, while Rio de Janeiro and the other States pro- 
duced 3,550,000. 

Sao Paulo alone has in the neighborhood of 700,000,000 
coffee trees planted. However, this number will not be materi- 
ally increased for some years, owing to Government regulation, 




COFFEE WASHING AT SANTA G-ERTRUDIS, STATE OF SAO PAULO, 

BRAZIL. 



BRAZIL 




A TWELVE-OX -TEAM, SANTA GERTRUDIS, STATE OF SAO PAULO, 

BRAZIL. 



which restricts the destruction of virgin forests and the indis- 
criminate and almost reckless spread of the coffee plantations. 
It is held that it is time for the owners of plantations to give 
more attention to the areas already under cultivation, for by 
doing so they may increase the production and secure a better 
quality of berry. 

Much has been said and written regarding the great Coffee 
Trust, but personal investigation led me to the conclusion that a 
trust, as we in the United States understand the term, does not 
exist. There are years when the coffee crop is short, just as there 
are years when wheat does not yield up to the average, and it is 
to guard against these shortages that the Government of Brazil 
has taken a hand in the raising and marketing of this important 
article of commerce. 

This control by the Government insures a more stable price, 
for when there is a shortage the reserve stock is thrown upon 
the market and the price held down. The high prices prevail- 
ing at the present writing are due to a shortage in crop, a condi- 
tion that would not have existed had the Brazilian Government 
acted some years ago. This is shown by plain figures. The 
value of the coffee crop, at a low price in 1909, was $134,- 
674,470; the value of the crop for 1910 (the fiscal period 
ending June, 1911), was $94,670,346 at a greatly increased 



BRAZIL 455 

price. Supply and demand fix prices on coffee as well as 
wheat, and any one can see that there must have been a short- 
age, when a high price per bag produces a smaller total return 
than a low price. 

Since the abolition of slavery in Brazil there has been a 
great influx of immigrants from Italy, and they are gradually 
supplanting other workers in the coffee business. Three or four 
workers can easily look after 10,000 coffee trees during the 
period of formation, and in addition pluck yearly 1,200 bushels 
of coffee. 

When in a condition to be exported, the coffee is burdened 
by a number of expenses — transportation to Santos, broker's 
commissions, municipal taxes, State taxes, export duty, loading 
on ships, and a number of minor expenses that materially re- 
duce the profits of the planter. 

However, inventive genius has brought out machinery that 
will greatly reduce the cost of caring for the trees and plucking 
the fruit, and when this is fully perfected it is asserted that one 
man, with four mules and two machines, can look after 40,000 
trees per year. 

Coffee is the one great industry of southern Brazil ; all other 
industries cluster around it as steel filings cling to a magnet. 
Raising coffee under the old system was such an easy way to 
wealth that only such other things as were necessary were at- 
tempted. 

With some of the best grazing lands in the world, they have 
neglected cattle raising and bought Argentinian stock ; with soil 
that would raise almost anything, husbandry is little practiced, 
and the great bulk of foodstuffs is bought from their neigh- 
bors. But now that the Government has put a stop to the reck- 
less spread of coffee plantations, and is insisting upon more 
scientific cultivation, it is quite likely that the planters will dis- 
cover that the abandoned coffee lands may be profitably put 
under cultivation and money made on other crops, and that in 
years to come this section, which now hails Coffee as King, will 
reap much wealth from the land in other products. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

BEAUTIFUL RIO DE JANEIRO. 

AN AMATEUR artist was painting a sunset, so the story- 
goes, and was laying colors on the canvas in lurid streaks, 

while near by an old farmer sat watching. 

"Ah," said the artist, looking up, "perhaps to you, also, 

Nature has opened her illuminated pages ? Have you, too, seen 

the lambent flame of dawn leaping athwart the gleaming east ; 

the red-stained, sulphurous islets of gold floating in a lake of fire 

in the west ; the ragged clouds at midnight, black as a raven's 

wing, blotting out the shuddering moon ?" 

"No,' 7 drawled the old farmer, "not since I quit drinkin'." 
Whenever I am tempted to write very poetically I am afraid 

of "overdoing it," as this artist evidently did. However, there 




LOOKING DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAINS UPON TH 



BRAZIL 



457 



r.re some subjects and scenes for which there seems no fitting 
description except language that sounds extravagant. One of 
these is beautiful Rio de Janeiro and its matchless harbor. 

In the course of my travels over this wonderful earth of 
ours I have looked upon some beautiful scenery, among which 
may be named the famous Bay of Naples, the historic Golden 
Horn of Constantinople, the splendid Bay of Capetown, and 
our own charming Golden Gate at San Francisco ; but in point 
of actual grandeur and picturesqueness all these works of 
Nature are surpassed by the magnificent Bay of Rio de Janeiro. 

Here Nature, the master sculptor and painter, fashioned 
the rugged coast of Brazil into a place of marvelous beauty, 
bringing the granite cliffs of the mountains down to the sea 
in serrated ridges and peaks, and forming a land-locked harbor 
the like of which cannot be found elsewhere on the entire globe. 

The Bay of Rio de Janeiro has been the subject of poetic 
praise and description since it was discovered in January, 1501, 
by Amerigo Vespucci, and the traveler who comes to it, even 
after a voyage around the world, is as moved by its charms as 
if he had not been satiated with other beautiful views. 




ARBOR, BAY AND REGION OF RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, 



458 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



The Bay is the very gate to a tropical paradise ; one doubts 
if there is elsewhere so bold a coast, such a picturesque cluster 
of mountains, such a maze of small islands, such a burst of 
tropical vegetation. Guarding the narrow entrance to this 
wonder-spot of Nature stands an insurmountable granite peak, 
2,200 feet in height, known as the "Sugar Loaf," which rises 
almost precipitately out of the sea. A pretty Brazilian legend 




A BIRD S-EYE VIEW OF THE BA 
TRAVELERS PRONOUNCE THIS THE MOS 



says of this towering peak that, having made the Bay of Rio de 
Janeiro, the Creator was so pleased with His work that He 
erected this monument as a sort of exclamation point to call 
man's attention to His masterpiece. 

Vespucci in 1501 thought he had discovered a great river, 
and as he reached this point on the first day of January, he 
named it Rio de Janeiro (meaning, River of January) ; but no 



BRAZIL 



459 



stream of any importance flows into the Bay — it is simply a 
gigantic land-locked harbor, the shores of which form a reverse 
letter S and are nearly one hundred miles in length. 

The entrance to the Bay is only two thousand feet wide, 
and is defended by forts, one at the base of the "Sugar Loaf" 
and the other on the point opposite. Thus the city of Rio de 
Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, is completely protected from 




F RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL. 
SAUTIFUL HARBOR IN THE WORLD. 



a foreign foe by water. It would be impossible for war vessels 
to pass between these forts under the galling fire that could 
be poured into them. 

Passing the narrows and following the channel, we come 
to that portion of the Bay which is locally known as Guanabara 
Bay, where the warships of Brazil lie at anchor, and to the west 
of which is seen Rio, not in a lump, but in pieces, behind the 



460 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



curves of the seashore and green hills. In front, on the east 
we see Jurjuba, where the hospital for epidemic diseases is 
located ; after this the charming beach of Icarahy with its cele- 
brated rocks, and farther ahead the city of Nictheroy, the 
pretty capital of the State of Rio. 

The entire harbor is dotted with islands, most of which are 
large enough for buildings of some sort, some even being large 
enough for cultivation of the ground. The passenger steamers 
anchor a little nearer the city quay, between where the men-of- 
war lie and a small island in front of the custom house, an 
island on which a beautiful building has been erected as the 
barracks of the custom house inspectors. 

Beyond this the space is taken up by ships of all nationali- 
ties, from the largest steamers to the smallest sailing vessels, 
some just coming, some surrounded by lighters, and others 
hoisting anchor to leave. At the quay small steamers and sail- 
ing ships receive from the storage houses freight for foreign 
countries. The forest of masts, funnels, stretched ropes, the 
noise of voices, hoisting machinery and steamship whistles give 
to that part of the Bay a characteristic feature — a contrast to 
the vastness and profound silence of the waters elsewhere, for 
farther away this matchless harbor is deep and peaceful and 
dotted with islands where life is quieter. 

The panoramic view on pages 458 and 459 is of that portion 




A BIT OF WATER-FRONT WITH THE CUSTOM HOUSE IN THE 
BACKGROUND, RIO DE JANEIRO. 



BRAZIL 



461 



of the Bay lying 
directly in front of 
the city of Rio, and 
is locally known as 
the Botafogo. It 
is quite a preten- 
tious bay itself, 
and as shown in 
the picture, is com- 
pletely surrounded 
by a bea u t i f u 1 
drive known as the 
A v e n i d a Beira- 
Mar, which, begin- 
ning at the Lapa 
terminal of the 
Aven i d a Central, 
swings around the 
shores of the Bay 
in a graceful 
horseshoe curve to 
the suburbs — a dis- 
tance of six miles. 
Vessels of com- 
merce do not in- 
vade this portion 
of the Bay at any 
time, and war ves- 
sels only on na- 
tional fete days, when the populace crowds the Avenida Beira- 
Mar. It is the scene, however, of many regattas and water 
carnivals. 

The panoramic photograph from which the picture men- 
tioned was made is declared the finest view ever taken of 
this beautiful place. We were several days in securing it 
and took perhaps twenty-five pictures before this one was ob- 
tained. An official of the Brazilian Government was so im- 
pressed with it that he offered me a large sum for the film, to 
be used exclusively by the Government, but I refused, keeping 




»P OF TIYUCA MOUNTAIN, NEAR RIO DE JANEIRO. 



462 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



it for the readers of this book and the Saturday Blade, in 
whose interest I made my long journey through South America. 

The history of the city of Rio de Janeiro, or to give it its 
full name, Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, dates from 1566, 
when Estacio de Sa effected a landing with a few colonists near 
the Sugar Loaf Mountain. The next year the settlement was 
transferred to the site of the present city, which was built ac- 
cording to the old Portuguese ideas of architecture, with nar- 
row streets that curved around the shores of the Bay at the 
foot of the mountains. 

Rome is built on seven hills ; Rio de Janeiro is built on 
many, for, with the growth in population, the city spread back 
upon the elevations and up the valleys between them. The 
narrow strip of land along the sea could not accommodate the 
homes of a million people — the approximate population of the 
city today. 

As will be shown in another chapter, Rio de Janeiro has 
always been the capital of Brazil, the Prince Regent of Por- 
tugal, when he fled from that country, having established his 
court at this point. When he returned to Portugal his son, 




A CHURCH AND GROUP OF TYPICAL DWELLING HOUSES, 
RIO DE JANEIRO. 



BRAZIL 



463 




SCENE IN A PARK IN RIO DE JANEIRO. 



Dom Pedro I., remained as the Emperor of Brazil. When 
Dom Pedro II. was overthrown and a republic established, the 
capital remained in this city, which thrived and grew, despite 
the fact that it was handicapped by those pests of the tropic — 
yellow fever, bubonic plague and smallpox. 

Not understanding how these dread maladies were spread, 
when they became epidemic to such an extent that merchant 
ships would not touch at the port, no real attempts were 
made to stamp them out. Rio de Janeiro would possibly still 
be the pest hole it had been for centuries, had it not been for 
the courage and bravery of United States army doctors, who 
gave their lives in demonstrating that mosquitoes were the 
active agents of infection. 

The city of Rio de Janeiro was the first to recognize the im- 
portance of the discovery and act upon it. In 1902 President 
Alves appointed a special commission of engineers and medical 
experts to devise a plan to make Rio de Janeiro not only sani- 



BRAZIL 465 

tary and safe, but beautiful as well. One year was spent in 
making plans and the negotiations for loans necessary to carry 
out the work. In 1903, with nearly $60,000,000 secured for 
the enterprise, work was begun, but before it was completed 
nearly $100,000,000 was spent. 

Large hills were torn down and low places filled up, an up- 
to-date water and sewer system was installed, and the narrow 
streets running back from the water-front were widened. Five 
valleys that break the ridge of mountains back of the main part 
of the city were utilized in a peculiar way to purify the air of 
the city. The reader's own hand will illustrate this as well as 
a picture. Assuming that the hand is the Bay in front of the 
city, the fingers, as they spread apart like a fan, will represent 
the avenues that, beginning at the Bay, where they are very 
wide, gradually get narrower as they run back to meet the 
valleys, a peculiar formation that almost continually draws the 
sea breeze back through the city into the mountains. 

Of course, there were opponents to this great enterprise, but 
the wise officials simply went ahead with their work, condemn- 
ing property, as any great city should do, razing old, obsolete 
structures, and in their places having modern, up-to-date build- 
ings erected, that go far toward making Rio de Janeiro one of 
the most beautiful places in the world. 

Today it is absolutely sanitary ; the mosquito is no more and 
flies are scarcer than in the cities of the United States. 
The Mosquito Department of the city is as prompt and effi- 
cient as the Chicago Fire Department, startling as that state- 
ment may seem. If a person discovers a mosquito, a telephone 
call will bring two inspectors in ten minutes, and it is their busi- 
ness to locate the pool where it was bred and remove the breed- 
ing place. 

In all my five weeks' stay in Rio de Janeiro I did not see or 
hear a mosquito, nor was I bothered with flies, and this, despite 
the fact that the doors and windows were wide open. I learned 
that there is not a mosquito bar or screen used in the entire city. 

One result of the recent rebuilding of the city is magnificent 

boulevards, which are made by laying cobblestones upon a bed 

of concrete, and spreading a thick layer of asphalt upon the 

cobblestones. Having the best of asphalt and no frost to heave 

30 



BRAZIL 467 

the foundation, the boulevards of Rio de Janeiro are, without 
exception, the finest in the world. They are lined with shade 
trees, with walks for pedestrians and seats for those who wish 
to rest and watch the automobiles skim by at a rate of forty to 
sixty miles an hour. Of these boulevards the most beautiful 
are the Avenida Central, with which there is nothing in the 
United States to compare, and the picturesque Avenida Beira- 
Mar. 

Before the reconstruction of the city it was impossible to 
operate automobiles along the narrow streets. As a result all 
of the autos are new and of the best European make, on which 
only seven per cent import duty is charged. American manu- 
facturers cannot meet the price of the European cars, so an 
automobile from the United States is a rare sight in Brazil. All 
automobiles carry two men "on the box" — even the taxis ; this 
is a continuation of the old custom of the richer element having 
a coachman and a footman on their carriages. 

It is impossible in a short space to describe the beauty of 
Rio de Janeiro, which, beginning at the balustrade sea wall of 
granite, sweeps back over the smaller hills of two hundred and 
three hundred feet in height, around the peaks that extend up- 
ward to over two thousand feet, and up the valleys which are 
lined with houses set in the very exuberance of tropical mag- 
nificence. 

Some of the hills and mountains are clad in verdure, others 
rise steep and bare. One cliff faces the sea at a height of 
2,200 feet, and the cleavage is so steep that it has been 
scaled but once, and that by a trained athlete, who was careful 
not to come down the way he went up. Asked to tell of the 
thrilling climb, he said the worst thing about it was that his 
hands were made sore by stepping on them as he crawled from 
niche to niche up the towering wall, finding at times that the 
only place to put his feet was where he was clinging with his 
fingers. You may believe this if you want to. 

The arrangement of the hills and mountains about the city 
results in a marvelous series of echoes, and when one of the 
forts or warships fires a salute the resounding echoes make it 
seem much as if a battle were in progress. A single shot will 
produce four or five echoes, depending upon the location of the 



468 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



gun when fired. They tell a story of how an American, from 
the Rocky Mountain region, once listened to these remarkable 
echoes without much interest. "As echoes they don't amount 
to much," he said. "Why, I've got an echo in the mountains 
near my gold mine that is worth something. Every night when 
I am ready to go to bed I just go out and yell, 'Seven o'clock ! 
Get up !' and at exactly seven in the morning the echo yells 
the same words in at my window and I wake up. Saves a lot 
of trouble, .you see." 

Nowhere in Rio de Janeiro did I see evidences of poverty, 




EMPEROR S PALACE, NOW NATIONAL MUSEUM, RIO DE JANEIRO. 



although the "simple life" was in evidence in the quarters 
where the laborers toil and live. The genial climate makes an 
excess of clothing unnecessary, so about all the laborer needs, 
if he does not care for the conventions of society, is a pair of 
cotton trousers ; while his wife can, and does to a certain ex- 
tent, manage to get along with a cotton slip built a la "Mother 
Hubbard." 

The rebuilding of the city has resulted in the erection of 
many new and beautiful marble buildings, some of them six 



470 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

and seven stories high. Notably among these may be men- 
tioned the Monroe Palace, shown in the front of the volume, 
which was built in commemoration of the American Monroe 
Doctrine ; the Municipal Theater, with a capacity of 20,000 
people, and the Tramway Hotel, which is so constructed that 
street cars run directly through the lower story. 

The old palace of the Emperor Dom Pedro is still one of 
the objects of interest, being now used as the National Museum, 
where are kept many of those treasures that are dear to the 
hearts of Brazilians. One of the objects of interest to be 
found in the museum is the Brazilian meteorite, which is the 
largest in the world, weighing nearly five tons. This wanderer 
from outer space was discovered in 1871, and after many un- 
successful attempts was finally placed in the museum. 

All of the shops and stores of Rio de Janeiro are small. In 
widening the streets the front ends of the stores were sliced 
off, leaving the merchant sometimes one-half of the space he 
had formerly occupied. There are no department stores, such 
as we have in the United States, and while the merchants carry 
very complete lines, their stocks are small, being replenished 
frequently from large warehouses where the goods are held 
in bond, the duty on which is not paid until they remove the 
articles. 

The city has a very fine street car system, the bonds of 
which are owned by Canadian capitalists. The cars are all 
open and the seats are so narrow that it is difficult for a fat 
man to squeeze into one. There are two rates of fare, nine 
cents being charged the ordinary passenger, but in the early 
morning and in the evening a second-class rate of two cents is 
charged for the benefit of the laborers going and coming from 
work. 

The municipality is governed by a Prefect, appointed by the 
President of the republic. The Minister of Justice is the Su- 
perintendent of Police, and the police force is comprised of 
about 4,500 men. The fire department is one of the most im- 
portant institutions of the city, and is without doubt, the most 
efficient in all South America. 

A Canadian company, with a capital of $50,000,000, incor- 
porated in 1904, has developed the abundant water power about 



BRAZIL 



473 



the city for the purpose of electricity, so that the city is well 
lighted, and has ample power for all the manufacturing estab- 
lishments that now exist or may be built. 

One of the picturesque sights of the city is a huge granite 
bridge crossing from one elevation to another. Before the in- 
stallation of the present up-to-date waterworks system this was 
used as an aqueduct. The Avenue of Palms on the Canal do 
Mangue is another of the charming spots of this most attractive 
city, and the sightseer lingers long entranced by its beauty. 

To fully describe the Botanical Gardens, which lie in the 




A UNIQUE COFFEE HOUSE, RIO DE JANEIRO. 



suburbs of the city, would require well nigh as much space as 
to describe the city itself. Here Nature and man have con- 
spired together in the making of a garden that is a veritable 
Eden. It may be reached by street car or by auto, either trip 
being one of countless surprises and delights. At one point on 
the way an enterprising man has taken a cave-like formation 
of granite in the base of a hill and converted it into a delightful 
coffee house. It was so unique that I present readers with a 
photograph of it above. 

The city is well supplied with schools of all sorts, churches 




THE CATHEDRAL, RIO DE JANEIRO. 



BRAZIL 475 

and charitable institutions. While the population is mainly 
Portuguese, there is the usual cosmopolitan mixture of all 
races, among which the negro predominates, as the result of the 
importation of slaves prior to the middle of the last century. 

To write a really adequate description of beautiful Rio de 
Janeiro would occupy more than one chapter. Even then it is 
doubtful if one could convey to the reader a word-picture that 
would do the place justice. In this spot there is a combina- 
tion of blue sea, of verdant islands, of soaring cliffs and green 
hills and picturesque architecture, that form a vision of beauty 
I believe unequaled elsewhere on the globe. All praise to the 
men of Rio de Janeiro, who had the wisdom and energy to 
create a city so sanitary, so artistic, and so entirely pleasant for 
human beings to live in. 

There are numerous beautiful suburbs about Rio de 
Janeiro, among them Petropolis perhaps being the most nota- 
ble. This little city lies across the Bay and up in the moun- 
tains, twenty-eight miles distant from the capital. It is 3,000 
feet above sea level, and its situation is exceedingly picturesque 
and salubrious. There are many handsome buildings, and 
the place is unique as the residence of the entire foreign 
diplomatic corps. This came about by reason of the fact that 
several years ago the diplomatic body abandoned the capital 
during a yellow fever epidemic. It is likely that the diplomatic 
corps will eventually be removed to the capital for permanent 
residence, since Rio de Janeiro is now in excellent sanitary 
condition. Petropolis is a favorite resort of wealth and fash- 
ion, and during eight or nine months of the year teems with 
life and gayety. For a small town it is important, since it is 
the residence of twenty foreign diplomats. 

I had an interview with Hermes da Fonseca, President of 
Brazil, which was one of the most interesting and pleasant 
experiences of my South American journey. I was presented 
to the President by a personal friend, United States Ambassa- 
dor Irving B. Dudley, since deceased. President Fonseca's 
residence is the Government Palace at Rio de Janeiro. I 
found him" a pleasant, courteous gentleman, living in demo- 
cratic simplicity that was in marked contrast with the pomp 
and red tape usually surrounding rulers. We discussed many 




THE LATE UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR, IRVING B. DUDLEY, HIS 

WIFE AND DAUGHTER, ON THE VERANDA OF THE 

PALACE ISABEL, PETROPOLIS, BRAZIL. 



BRAZIL 477 

subjects, of which I will mention only the more important. 

Regarding- the subject of international arbitration the Presi- 
dent declared that Brazil was very much in favor of it, so 
much so that it had been provided for in their constitution,, 
and in that respect Brazil was ahead of every other nation of 
the world. The very first trouble Brazil had with another 
nation, after the establishment of the republic, was with Argen- 
tina. In accordance with the constitution, Brazil prevailed 
upon Argentina to leave the matter to President Cleveland of 
the United States for arbitration, and as it happened, he 
decided in favor of Brazil, since which time she has had the 
highest opinion of arbitration and a warm feeling for the 
United States. 

In our discussion of reciprocity between the United States 
and Brazil, President Fonseca said that the United States was 
the only country with which Brazil exchanged goods on that 
basis, and that on several leading export articles we have the 
advantage over other countries in the matter of duty, and on 
all articles imported into Brazil we have from 15 to 30 per 
cent better rates than any other country. 

I called his attention to the fact that 99^2 per cent of all 
goods we import from Brazil come into the United States 
free of duty, there being no import tax on coffee and rubber, 
Brazil's greatest export staples, and then asked if his country 
could not make us better reciprocal terms than we had already. 
His answer to this pertinent query was a lengthy explanation 
of governmental affairs and condition of finances, which may 
be briefly summed up by saying that they could not do so at 
this time because the nation needs the money thus obtained 
for governmental purposes, Brazil being larger than the United 
States in area while possessing only 22,000,000 inhabitants, 50 
per cent of whom are Indians and negroes, who pay no taxes. 

While on the subject of the commercial relations of our 
respective countries I mentioned that 40 per cent of Brazil's 
exports found a market in the United States, while only 12 
per cent of Brazil's imports came from the United States, and 
suggested that Brazil should buy more goods from us. His 
reply was that we should make a greater effort to sell our 
goods in Brazil, and I was compelled to admit that we do not 



478 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



work the field as we should and take advantage of the recipro- 
cal duties. It is a lamentable fact that our exporters do not 
make as effective efforts to sell goods in Brazil as manufac- 
turers of European countries, and perhaps the principal reason 
is that we do not possess any banks there and the business 
done must be transacted through the agency of foreign banks. 
I commented on our friendly diplomatic relations with 
Brazil — the youngest republic in South America, and in fact, 
the only nation in the Western Hemisphere where we have 
established an embassy with a representative of the rank of 
Ambassador — and in his reply President Fonseca spoke in the 

highest terms of my friend, 
the late Ambassador Dudley. 
He stated that he was proud 
to have had almost daily 
conversations with a gentle- 
man of such high standing, 
character and intellectual at- 
tainments. 

President Fonseca stated 
that he felt that the United 
States was a real friend to 
Brazil, and that we had al- 
ways shown this when a 
friend was needed. 

In our discussion of the 
rebuilding of the city of Rio 
de Janeiro for the purpose 
of securing perfect sanita- 
tion, I asked if they had not 
taken great risk, and he re- 
plied that the work which 
cost approximately $100,000,000, and made Rio de Janeiro 
the finest city in the world from a sanitary and artistic stand- 
point, had been put through in face of the opposition of 85 
per cent of the people ; and that even when finished and its 
advantages were evident to all, the feeling of opposition was 
so strong against the men who had gone ahead and completed 




HERMES DA FONSECA, PRESIDENT 
OF BRAZIL. 



BRAZIL 479 

this most gigantic enterprise, that they were obliged to leave 
their homes and live in foreign countries. 

I then told him of our own experience in the improvement 
of the city of Washington, the capital of the United States. 
"Boss" Shepherd, who engineered and put the work through, 
was assailed as a robber and grafter on account of the high 
cost of the work, and so hot was the fight made upon him 
that he was forced to leave the United States. He went to 
Mexico, where he engaged in mining, and years afterward, 
when the people of the United States realized the injustice 
done him, he was brought back, given a, big banquet, apolo- 
gized to, and everything possible done to wipe out remem- 
brances of the insult heaped upon him. 

I inquired how the population in cities compared with 
that of the country in Brazil, and was astonished to learn that 
they had just completed, at enormous expense, the first house- 
to-house census of the country. The President informed me 
that 20 per cent of the people of Brazil live in cities. In 
Argentina 40 per cent live in cities, and in the United States 
28 per cent. Brazil's figures seem about right to me, and in 
my judgment this division of population is bound to be of 
advantage to the country, keeping the cities prosperous and 
the country districts more so. 

As to railroads, President Fonseca regretted that Brazil 
was still short on mileage. He is alive to the fact that adequate 
transportation is necessary for the development of the country, 
and said the country was doing everything it could to aid in 
the building of roads, guaranteeing bonds and aiding in other 
ways every enterprise that would prove of advantage to the 
country. About 1,500 miles of road were constructed during 
the year previous to my visit. Brazil has only 12,500 miles of 
railroad, while the United States has 234,000 miles. 

My personal opinion of President Fonseca corresponds 
with that held by many leading men of Brazil ( some of whom 
do not agree with him in politics), that he is thoroughly honest 
and while not a trained politician or statesman (having been 
Commander of the Army prior to his election) that he is 
a very safe President, listening carefully to all sides of all 
questions of importance before giving judgment, and that 



480 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

political parties and factions do not control him. In other 
words he is the President of Brazil, the same as he was Com- 
mander of the Army, impartial to all, and working for the good 
and glory of his country. 

The constitution of Brazil is modeled closely after that of 
the United States, so closely, in fact, that with minor excep- 
tions, such as greater States' rights and the clause providing 
for arbitration, one would imagine them identical. The Con- 
gress is composed of Senators and Deputies, and the duration 
of Congress is three years. A majority of each body is neces- 
sary to constitute a quorum. To be eligible to election one 
must have been a citizen four years in case of a Deputy, and 
six years in case of a Senator. The President is elected every 
four years, but cannot succeed himself. He must be a native- 
born Brazilian, and over thirty-five years of age. His duties 
and powers are similar to those of the President of the United 
States. 

The judicial power of the union is also similar to that of 
the United States, and the twenty-one States hold much the 
same relation to the Federal Government as in our own country. 

Being constitutionally in favor of arbitration, Brazil's army 
and navy are small ; the people regard it only necessary to keep 
pace with other South American nations in this respect. 
Unlike Chile and Argentina, Brazil has no compulsory law to 
fill either branch of arms, relying on a volunteer service, very 




THE PALACE ISABEL, THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR S 
RESIDENCE, PETROPOLIS, BRAZIL. 



BRAZIL 481 

similar to our own. Her navy consists of thirty-eight vessels, 
some of which are very modern, and 8,800 men; the army on 
a peace footing consists of 28,000 men. 

Brazil's monetary system is based on gold values, and is 
therefore stable. The unit of circulation is the milreis, with 
a value of thirty-three cents in our money. The country is 
well supplied with banks, the principal nations of Europe all 
being represented by firms in the largest commercial cities. 
The principal foreign bank is the London-Brazilian, which has 
branches all over South America, and is one of the soundest 
institutions in the world. I observed that while the Brazilians 
are inclined to be a trifle jealous of the success of foreigners 
in most business ventures, they are anxious for the establish- 
ment of foreign banks, and the Government gives them good 
protection. 

On one of the many small islands in the Bay of Rio de 
Janeiro lies a complete outfit for a large oil-refining plant that 
has never been erected. It belongs to the Standard Oil Com- 
pany, and as it lies there a prey to the elements it is mute 
testimony to the jealousy of the Brazilians in regard to 
foreigners obtaining a business monopoly, and at the same 
time shows how a United States money king can curb com- 
merce when he does not have his own sweet will. The story 
is interesting and few know all its details, as it has never 
before been in print. 

A few years ago, a friend of mine, who is the president of 
a large New York bank, advised me that the chief financiers 
interested in his bank had declared that it would greatly aid 
the commerce of the United States with South American coun- 
tries if substantial American branch banks were opened in the 
various business centers of that continent, and that they would 
establish the first one in Brazil. A year or so later- he advised 
me that they had given up the project, adding that the "old 
man," as he called the leading capitalist interested in the bank, 
had backed out. That was all I heard at that time. 

While in Rio de Janeiro I picked up the missing link in the 

story. Some years ago, a friend of Brazil's Minister of 

Finance suggested to him to put an import duty on refined oil, 

admitting crude oil free, and then give a company he would 

31 



482 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




ISLAND IN THE BAY OF RIO DE JANEIRO WHERE THE OIL TRUST 
PLANNED A REFINERY. 



form a monopoly on refining oil. This was done by due pro- 
cess of law, and the promoter went ahead with his enterprise, 
but just when he was about to secure the necessary financial 
aid a local panic made this impossible, and the project was 
given up. 

The Standard Oil Company, however, never overlooks any- 
thing to its advantage, whether in the United States, Brazil, 
or the remotest part of the world. The concession secured by 
the Brazilian promoter was valuable to the Trust, and after 
showing him that it was of practically no value to him, they 
bought it at a very low price, arranged all the details for a 
great refining plant on the island in the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, 
and shipped the machinery and material for the refinery. 

Meanwhile the Minister of Finance learned from his friend, 
the promoter, that the Standard Oil Company had secured the 
concession at a ridiculously low price, and would at once pro- 



BRAZIL 483 

ceed to enjoy the monopoly on refined oil, whereupon he pro- 
ceeded to undo what he had done. He had secured the duty 
on refined oil, so he simply had it removed, making the conces- 
sion now owned by the Oil Trust of no value. 

As stated before, the oil-refining plant has not been erected, 
nor has the branch bank above referred to been started. 
Readers, no doubt, are so well informed relative to the con- 
nection between the Oil Trust and the great banks of Wall 
Street that it is not necessary to go into detail and explain why 
the money king refused to go ahead with the banking project 
when he could not have the refined-oil monopoly of Brazil. 

Meanwhile the United States is denied the commercial ad- 
vantages in Brazil that are enjoyed by European countries, 
simply because we have no branch banks there. The time 
may come, however, when the grudge of an oil king may not 
operate to stifle commerce, and then our manufacturers will 
be able to take advantage of our reciprocal trade agreement 
with Brazil. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

HOW BRAZIL BECAME A REPUBLIC. 

THE honor of discovering that portion of South America 
now known as Brazil is given by historians to Pedro 
Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese explorer. 

The western coast of Africa is only about 1,200 miles from 
the eastern coast of South America, and in sailing south Cabral 
was carried west, and on May 3, 1500, anchored his fleet at a 
point about 400 miles northeast of the present site of the city 
of Rio de Janeiro. This date is a national holiday in Brazil, and 
the anniversary for the annual convening of the Congress of 
the republic. 

Cabral thought he had discovered an island, which he named 
the "Island of the True Cross," and this name stuck to the 
country for nearly half a century. He took possession of the 
land in the name of his King and the Church, and then inquired 
of the Indians if they knew what gold and silver were, and 
finding them uninformed, he decided that the discovery made 
was of little value on account of the absence of these valuable 
metals. 

Several Spanish explorers and discoverers touched the coast 
of Brazil soon after Cabral's discovery, but their accounts of 
the country were not flattering, and when Orellana crossed the 
Andes and sailed down the Amazon in quest of gold, and re- 
ported none, and that the country adjoining the great river was 
inhabited by fierce bands of savages, the Spanish Government 
concluded to "pass up" this magnificent domain. 

Portuguese exploring expeditions were sent out at once 
under command of Amerigo Vespucci. He was disappointed 
in finding no gold or silver, but he did find that the country 
possessed a great quantity of brazil-wood — a dyewood that 
had been used in Europe for centuries. The commercial im- 
portance of this find resulted later in changing the name of the 

484 



BRAZIL 



485 



country to Brazil, much to the grief of the churchmen, who 
preferred "Island of the True Cross." 

A country yielding no gold or silver held but little attraction 
in that day, so for many years no direct effort was made to 
settle Brazil. However, attracted by the gain to be made from 
the abundance of dyewoods, private expeditions were fitted 
out to gather this valuable article, and in time the coast became 
well known and reports of its fertility attracted attention. 

The area of Brazil is estimated at 3,218,991 square miles, a 
country larger than the entire United States, not including 
Alaska. Its Atlantic seacoast line is nearly 4,000 miles in 
length, its extreme width from east to west being about 3,500 
miles. It is traversed by mountain ranges of such height that 
its climate is more uniform than any other habitable region 
near the equator. 

Occupying the central portion of the continent (see any 
map of South America) it touches all the political divisions ex- 
cept Chile, and being situated in latitudes where evaporation 
and precipitation are largest, it has the steadiest and most uni- 
formly distributed rainfall of any part of the globe. 

The first permanent settlement was made by mutineers from 




THE CONGRESSIONAL BUILDING, RIO DE JANEIRO. 



4 86 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

a dyewood ship, who were left among the Indians, one of 
whom, named Caramuru, had a John Smith-Pocahontas experi- 
ence that ended in Caramuru gaining an Indian bride, thus 
establishing a sort of bond of union between the white men and 
the Indians, that resulted in other white men taking Indian 
wives. 

As early as 1516 the Portuguese Government offered to 
give farming implements to settlers in Brazil, and shortly after 
this some sugar-cane was planted, but the first serious effort in 
this industry was made in 1526 when a sugar factory was es- 
tablished at Pernambuco. 

In 1 53 1 the Government began to realize that the sugar- 
raising industry could be made profitable, and Martini Affonso 
da Souza was sent to Brazil with five vessels and a large num- 
ber of settlers. Where the great coffee port of Santos is now 
located he founded the first real Portuguese colony. Six other 
permanent colonies were established, and until the middle of 
the sixteenth century they flourished. 

During this period there was always more or less trouble 
in procuring laborers. The Jesuit priests had, by heroic self- 
sacrifice and arduous labor, brought the coast natives into 
complete subjection, but they wanted them for themselves and 
objected to them working for the planters. 

This, together with strife with the Paulist fathers, resulted 
in the Jesuit Indians being driven farther back, and to supplant 
them the Portuguese, who were the pioneers of the African 
slave trade, began to import negroes from Africa. 

In 1 581 Philip II. of Spain became also ruler of Portugal, 
and all South America came under the domination of one mon- 
arch, but Spain's supremacy of the world was hotly contested. 
In 1623 she had to let go and the Dutch took Brazil ; but in 
1655, after eleven years of warfare, the Dutch were driven out 
and Brazil was restored to Portugal. 

During this long war many of the negro slaves escaped into 
the interior and formed settlements, and in the search for these 
escaped slaves and during their subjugation, considerable ex- 
ploration of the interior was made. About the year 1670 an 
expedition that had been out slave-hunting returned to the 
coast with the news that gold had been found. Intense excite- 



BRAZIL 



487 



ment followed and there was a rush to the El Dorado, some 
three hundred miles inland, that threatened to depopulate the 
coast towns. It was an important discovery, one State alone 
having produced 25,000,000 ounces of the precious metal up to 
the present time. 

For years Spain had claimed territory as far north as 
Santos, while Portugal claimed the country as far south as the 
Rio de la Plata. As both could not own the 1,000 miles of coast 
between these points there was always trouble about it. How- 




THE PRESIDENT S PALACE, RIO DE JANEIRO. 



ever, in 1777 a treaty was established which gave Uruguay to 
Spain, and the Portuguese were allowed to keep all the terri- 
tory north of that point. 

Portugal had been an ally of England for a century, but in 
1807 Napoleon demanded that she break with England. The 
Prince Regent, who was governing for his queen mother, at 
that time insane, tried to evade this, but when Napoleon pre- 
pared for war he gathered up all his portable belongings, and. 



488 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

followed by some 15,000 persons, fled to Brazil, locating the 
seat of the Portuguese Government at Rio de Janeiro. Brazil 
had to assume the burdens as well as reap the advantages of 
being an independent nation. The whole extravagant Portu- 
guese Government, with its swarm of hangers-on, who had 
bankrupted both Portugal and Brazil, now looked to Brazil 
alone for plunder and sustenance. 

In 1820 an outbreak of revolutionists in Portugal resulted 
in a call from the mother country for the Prince Regent to 
return or to send his son to rule, the powers of Europe being 
agreeable to this move. Before any action could be taken the 
revolt spread to Brazil, and a constitution was demanded. The 
Prince, afraid for his life, sniveled in his palace, while his son 
addressed the mob and agreed in his father's name that the 
people should have their way. 

This act made young Dom Pedro, who was progressive, the 
real leader in Brazil, and he lost no time in packing his royal 
father, and the hangers-on of his court, off to Portugal. The 
seat of Government, however, was still in Portugal, but young 
Pedro, yielding to the voice of the people, led the revolt that 
made Brazil' independent, and on October 12, 1822, he was sol- 
emnly crowned "Constitutional Emperor of Brazil," announcing 
that he would, accept the constitution to be drawn. by the 
approaching constitutional assembly. 

Unfortunately hls> loud protestations of constitutionalism 
turned out to be windy promises, and there followed twenty 
years of bloody revolts because the Emperor had no idea what 
real liberty meant. The first Congress, which met in 1827, 
voted as the Emperor dictated, and consequently lost prestige 
with the people, and after four years of bickering and rebellions 
he abdicated in favor of his infant son. 

The regency that followed Pedro's expulsion lacked in- 
fluence and prestige, and civil war broke out and the turmoil 
became so great that in 1840, when he was but fifteen, Pedro II. 
was declared eligible to take his seat as Emperor. Fortunately 
for his country, he resembled his mother more than his father ; 
he was quiet, studious, shrank from observation and ruled con- 
stitutionally until the end. 

In 1843 Dom Pedro II., being then not quite eighteen years 



BRAZIL 



489 



of age, was married by proxy to Theresina Christina, daughter 
of Francis, King of Naples. It was one of those marriages 
made for reasons of State, so common in royal circles, and the 
boy did not see his bride until she came to Brazil. 

History describes her as an old maid and not particularly 
good-looking, so it is little wonder that the young Emperor 
turned his back on her and sought his chamber almost in tears. 
However, he was a kindly soul, and after the first disappoint- 
ment was over he realized he had been given a splendid woman 
as a wife, and he made her a good husband. Their two boys 




EMPEROR DOM PEDRO AND FAMILY, THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. 

(Dom Pedro II. and his daughter Isabel are standing together; to the 
left is the Empress; to the rear at the right is Isabel's husband.) 



49Q ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

died in infancy, but in 1846 Isabel was born, and under Dom 
Pedro II. Brazil prospered as never before. 

In 1862 Brazil took a hand in settling a small rebellion in 
Uruguay, which act furnished Lopez II., Dictator of Paraguay, 
a pretext to start trouble, which culminated in 1865, when 
Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay allied themselves in a war to 
exterminate their unpopular and despotic neighbor. This con- 
flict was not ended until 1870, and it cost Brazil $300,000,000 
and 50,000 lives, with no material advantage except that of 
assuring the free navigation of the Paraguay River. 

With the close of the Paraguayan war a series of move- 
ments began, which ended, twenty years later, in the overthrow 
of the empire. The abolition movement, which had begun in 
1848, finally assumed alarming proportions, the advocates of a 
republic having sown discontent, and, while the country con- 
tinued to prosper, these great questions kept the public in 
constant turmoil. 

In Brazil the blacks did not reproduce as rapidly as the 
whites, and when importing them ceased, their number de- 
creased until in 1873 there were only about 1,600,000, as com- 
pared with 2,500,000 in 1856. Slaves furnished nearly all the 
labor, and it was believed that emancipation would result in 
agricultural collapse. 

The Emperor, however, was too much of a Christian not to 
realize the moral side of the question, so there was no opposi- 
tion from the throne when a law passed the Congress declaring 
all children born thereafter free, though bound until they were 
twenty-one years of age. Under the influence of this measure 
the number of slaves decreased to 743,000 in 1887, when a final 
attack was made upon the institution of slavery. 

The poor old Emperor had gone abroad, sick and failing, 
leaving his daughter Isabel as regent, and, in 1888, she an- 
nounced from the throne that the imperial program was abso- 
lute, immediate, noncompensated emancipation. The law was 
passed with scarcely a murmur and the Princess signed the 
document, though she was warned that her act meant the end 
of the empire. 

With slavery abolished the next step was to establish a re- 
public, and the propagandists of this movement became more 



BRAZIL 



491 



active than ever. The Emperor's health had grown more 
feeble, and the Princess Isabel, who was unpopular, was in 
power. Her parsimonious French husband, the Comte d'Eu, 
was bitterly disliked, and while there was but small desire to 
dethrone the Emperor, the prospect of Isabel and her husband 
as the rulers inflamed the spirit of revolt. 

On November 14, 1889, the republicans, after a show of mili- 
tary force, quietly deposed the Emperor, and Brazil became a 
republic the following- day. On November 16th the stricken 
Emperor and his family were placed on board a ship bound for 
Lisbon, Portugal. 

The provisional Government continued in power fourteen 
months, and during that time organized the provinces into 
States after the pattern of the United States of North America. 
Church and State were separated, universal suffrage estab- 
lished, civil marriage was introduced, and every vestige of 
monarchical custom was obliterated. 

The constitution was adopted in February, 1891, and 
Deodoro da Fonseca was elected President. Thus Brazil, pos- 
sibly the richest country in the world, within four hundred 
years had the Indians, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and 
a monarch of her own, as rulers, and is now a splendid republic. 
Here, as in almost every quarter of the world, the progressive 
evolution of human government has been sure and satisfactory. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
A BRAZILIAN-AMERICAN COLONY. 

THE milreis is the unit of value in Brazil, and is worth 
thirty-three cents in United States money. It might, be 
well to amplify this by saying that the nominal value of the 
milreis is fifty-five cents, but thirty-three cents is the real value, 
because Brazil has only about $100,000,000 in gold coin, while 
it has upward of $400,000,000 in paper money and about 
$25,000,000 in silver in circulation. 

The United States does not cut much of a figure in a finan- 
cial way in Brazil ; as England is pre-eminent in Argentina, so 
we find France pre-eminent in Brazil. The French financiers 
are securing most of the "plums" that go to outsiders, while 
French manufacturers have a large percentage of the country's 
trade. 

The United States Government is making moves to the 
same end in Central America, and to some extent in Argentina. 
The recently made loan to Honduras and the building of battle- 
ships for Argentina by ship-building firms of our country tend 
to strengthen trade relations with our Southern cousins, so we 
are gradually taking advantage of opportunities long neglected. 

The Brazilian Government is now building a large ship yard 
on the southern coast, the concession having been let to a 
private corporation, the Government guaranteeing six per cent 
on the investment. It is the purpose of the Brazilian Govern- 
ment to build its own warships. 

In speaking to the Admiral of the Brazilian navy about the 
mutiny, which no doubt readers will recall as occurring some 
time ago, and for which seventy mutineers were executed, I 
inquired if the conditions were not bad in the navy. 

He smilingly replied that they were no worse than in other 
navies, and reminded me that we had had a revolt in our own 
navy, and that the son of a former Secretary of the Interior, 

492 



BRAZIL 493 

a minor naval officer, was executed with two others for 
inciting the revolt. (I have investigated this story since my 
return to the United States, and have found it true.) Which 
goes to show that we Americans have no license to get "puffed 
up" and criticise others too liberally ; we have many defects, 
and if one goes abroad and gets "chesty" one is very likely to 
have these weak spots pointed out. However, when other 
nations fail to admire certain qualities of ours the motive may 
not always spring from self-satisfaction, as with a North 
Carolina colored gentleman some one has told about. This 
man was honest and industrious, but, in the opinion of the new 
minister, unsociable. 

"Neighborliness, my dear friend," said the preacher, "is 
brotherliness. Do you take the trouble to see much of your 
neighbors?" 

"Ah reckon ah sees as much of them as dey sees of me," 
Rastus replied. 

"Perhaps," said the clergyman, "but do you love your 
neighbor as yourself ?" 

"Ah reckon ah does, pahson," Rastus replied, "but you 
know, suh, I ain't p'tic'larly stuck on mahself neither." 
The reader can make his own application. 

In religion Brazil, like all other South American countries, 
is decidedly Catholic. However, since the fall of the empire and 
establishment of the republic, Church and State are entirely 
separate, the relation formerly existing having been eliminated 
entirely by the constitution, which, as stated in another chapter, 
is modeled after that of the United States. Brazil is now a 
great, field for the missionaries of all churches, which thought 
leads me to the State of Sao Paulo, and my personal experi- 
ence in visiting Villa Americana, as it was there I met more 
missionaries than at any other place in all Brazil. Villa Ameri- 
cana, or to put it plainly, American Village, has a remarkable 
history, which I will briefly relate. 

In 1866 there sailed from the port of New Orleans two 
ships carrying 365 men, women and children — about eighty 
families — who had left their homes in Georgia and Alabama 
to escape the unpleasant experiences of the reconstruction 
period that followed the Civil War. 



494 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



One of the ships, carrying about one hundred of the party, 
was bound for a point in Mexico, the other for Brazil. Their 
object was to go to some country where slavery was legal, 
where the climate was somewhat similar to their own beloved 
South, and where they could raise cotton, cane, rice, tobacco 
and watermelons under the conditions to which they were ac- 
customed. 

It so happened, however, that the Mexican insurrection was 




A BIRD S-EYE VIEV 



at its hottest at this time, Maximilian, the Mexican Emperor, 
having just been executed, so the ship that had sailed for Mexi- 
co changed its course and started after the one on its way to 
Brazil. Off the coast of Cuba the former was wrecked, and 
the passengers were transferred to the other ship. 

The ex-Americans landed at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 



BRAZIL 



495 



April 22, 1867, and after some negotiation secured free a large 
tract of land from the Government. On this land they started a 
town known as Xirica. In a short time, however, they found 
this locality too low and damp, so they moved to a point one 
hundred miles north of the city of Sao Paulo, where they pur- 
chased a large tract of land for five dollars an acre, and 
founded the town known as Villa Americana. This land is 
now worth twenty-five dollars an acre. 




LA AMERICANA, BRAZIL. 



The elevation here is about 3,000 feet above sea level, and, 
though it is only twenty-five degrees south of the equator, the 
climate is ideal. There is no frost, nor is there any excessively 
warm weather, and one may sleep under a blanket all the sum- 
mer months. 

Although the soil is adapted to the growth of coffee, the 



496 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Americans did not attempt to cultivate this important article of 
commerce, as they knew nothing about it. They confined their 
efforts to cotton, cane, tobacco and watermelons, as they had at 
home, and in due time found, also, that they could grow upland 
rice successfully. 

In growing rice they plow the ground, sow the grain as we 
do wheat, and harvest it in the same manner. It is not neces- 
sary to flood the ground with water, as is done in the southern 
part of the United States. The average rainfall in this section 
is forty-five inches per year, as compared with thirty-two inches 
in the United States. 

While they raise on an average of one and one-half bales 
of cotton to the acre, and are successful with rice, tobacco and 
cane, one of their chief products is watermelons, and for this 
reason Villa Americana is known as the watermelon city of 
Brazil, over 2,000 cars of the luscious melons being shipped 
every year. 

One of the oldest of the settlers, a Mr. Pyle, formerly of 
Georgia, told me that in one day he had hauled and shipped 
forty-five six-mule wagon loads of melons. During the melon 
season long lines of wagons stand waiting their turn at the 
railway station in Villa Americana. 

One of the pho- 
tographs I secured 
shows a small boy 
standing beside 
three prize water- 
melons, the largest 
of which weighed 
eighty pounds. If 
there was any one 
place where m y 
colored serving 
man, Charlie, felt 
perfectly at home, 
it was at Villa 
Americana among 
the watermelons. 
It was all I could 

THE BOY AND THE MELONS AT VILLA 
AMERICANA, BRAZIL. 




BRAZIL 



497 




HAULING MELONS TO THE STATION, VILLA AMERICANA, BRAZIL. 



do to get him to leave the town. I secured several snapshots 
of him with his ebony face buried in different big melons, but 
on looking for them later I failed to find them. Charlie was 
especially fond of those pictures, spending hours looking at 
them, and I am inclined to believe that one day on our way 
home he was so moved by the sight of his features submerged 
in a particularly juicy melon that he ate the films ! 

The American settlers at Villa Americana have built schools, 
churches, and good roads, and have raised the standard of 
citizenship in this part of Sao Paulo. However, only about 
twenty of the old families are left, the others having become 
extinct, or returned to the United States. 

One of the typical families of the settlement is that of 
Charles M. Hall, who has prospered financially and otherwise. 
He has devoted his energies principally to the raising of sugar- 
cane, only a limited quantity of which is grown, because there 
are no sugar refineries to use the product. The principal use of 
32 



498 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

the cane has been for the manufacture of rum to sell to the 
natives. 

Needless to say, Mr. Hall in time became quite wealthy, and 
as his wealth grew he became public-spirited. Among other 
things he did was to build a Protestant church, which is used 
jointly by the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. At a 
missionary meeting in Villa Americana a large number of Pres- 
byterian ministers were present, and Mr. Hall and his family, 
which included four daughters, took a great interest in these 
preachers and their work, an interest which culminated in each 
of his daughters falling in love with and marrying a Presby- 
terian minister. 

I had the pleasure of meeting three of the couples at Mr. 
Hall's while there. The fourth son-in-law died some years ago 
of yellow fever, and his wife went back to his home in Virginia. 
In the course of conversation at dinner it was suggested that 
"mother had raised the girls for the ministers," to which all 
agreed, and I added that evidently father had raised the price. 
There was no contradiction to this, though I observed some 
suppressed smiles I did not quite understand — for at that time I 
did not know that father was so extensively engaged in the 
manufacture of cane rum. 

Later in the afternoon I mentioned the remark to an old 
American and he laughed till he burst off a few buttons. He 
said I had hit the nail on the head, and then proceeded to give 
me the history of how Mr. Hall had gained his wealth. 

I discovered that many of the American families had 
changed their names by adding Portuguese affixes or suffixes so 
that they could be easily pronounced by the natives. In simple 
American names vowels are frequently silent in the pronuncia- 
tion ; in the Portuguese language every vowel has a sound, and 
the changes were necessary so that the natives could handle 
the names easily. 

In my judgment the Americans of this colony gained noth- 
ing but temporary peace of mind by leaving their own country. 
Many of them have been successful, but they would have been 
as successful in Alabama and Georgia, and the increase in the 
value of land has been greater in those two States than it has 
been in Brazil. Slavery was abolished in Brazil about twenty 




ENTRANCE TO THE GREAT MUSEUM AT SAO PAULO. A 
MONUMENT TO THE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL. 



500 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

years after they went there, so they were forced to contend 
with the same labor conditions they would have had at home. 

I found a condition existing in this region that made me 
stop and think. All over South America I had observed that 
there was more or less of the mouth and hoof disease that 
attacks cattle, although in the old wild condition cattle grew 
and thrived to the full extent where there were grass and water 
for them. With the importation of finely bred cattle, however, 
came an increase in cattle diseases in all localities. 

At Villa Americana the conditions seemed excellent for 
stock ; the climate is fine, there is plenty of water and grass and 
the elevation makes the drainage perfect. However, the dread 
mouth and hoof disease followed breeding up the cattle, and 
they discovered that it was necessary to breed downward 
and return as near to the original stock as possible, when the 
disease disappeared. 

My observation in tropical Africa, while conducting the 
Saturday Blade's balloonograph and shooting expedition, was 
that the hump-backed cattle belonging to the negroes, which 
were not crossed and bred up, were free of disease, while the 
high-grade cattle, bred up by imported stock, were subject to 




■ 




A PANORAMIC VIEW OF T 



BRAZIL 



5oi 



many diseases and died so rapidly that sections, sometimes 
fifty to one hundred miles in extent, were quarantined. 

The city of Sao Paulo reminds me very much of a prosper- 
ous German manufacturing city, though the laborers are prin- 
cipally Italians. The manufacturing institutions are varied, 
rather than large, running through the whole list of human 
needs, and the manufacturers are prosperous, as they have the 
benefit of an almost prohibitive tariff. Wages paid to employes 
are better than in any place in Europe, and in some instances 
are almost equal to those in the United States, and the working- 
men live well. 

But little of the manufactures are exported, the home de- 
mand being equal to the output and the prices high. Sao Paulo 
is the richest State in Brazil, and if separated from the republic 
and its taxes, of which it pays a very large proportion, it would 
possibly be the most prosperous independent nation in the 
world on account of its natural products. The one item of 
coffee alone produces $120,000,000 a year. 

The city of Sao Paulo has grown from 80,000 inhabitants 
to 500,000 in the short space of ten years, which is an indica- 
tion of its prosperity. There are a number of beautiful and 




CY OF SAO PAULO. BRAZIL. 



BRAZIL 



503 



costly buildings, among which may be mentioned the Municipal 
Theater, which has just been finished at a cost of $3,000,000. 

The street car system is owned by a Canadian company, 
which also furnishes electricity for many of the manufactories. 
The street cars used are huge affairs, and either they are too 
wide, or some of the streets are too narrow, for in several 
places the cars project over the sidewalks to the menace of 
pedestrians. Coming over the crest of a hill the front end of 
these big cars rears up like a horse prancing on its hind legs, 
and there is a terrifying thump when the front trucks over- 
balance the rear end and drop back to the rails. 

The street cars of Sao Paulo have killed many persons, 
which, together with the fact that the company refuses to pay 
over fifty dollars for any one death, has caused considerable 
sentiment against the corporation, and it is having a difficult 
time in securing a renewal 
of its franchise. The man- 
ager of the system is a 
Chicago man, and from 
what I learned I imagine 
that he "has troubles of his 
own." 

In Sao Paulo I had the 
pleasure of meeting the 
American vice consul, Mr. 
Lee, and his interesting 
family. Mr. Lee married 
a beautiful and talented 
Brazilian lady, and is a 
successful merchant, in ad- 
dition to attending to the 
requirements of our Gov- 
ernment in a highly efficient 
manner. 

Foreign capital has done 
much for Brazil in the past, 
but it is somewhat different 
now. In former times 
every new enterprise was 

A RESIDENCE AMONG THE PALM TREES IN 
SAO PAULO. 




504 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

given a welcome and concessions were easy to secure, but now 
the wealthy natives are jealously guarding against foreign 
capital securing anything worth while. This is especially true 
in regard to railroads, both steam and electric, and in hydro- 
electric development. 

The hotels in Sao Paulo are abominable, and it was almost 
impossible to get rooms. This condition was reversed in Rio 
de Janeiro, where there is apparently less "boom" than is 
noticeable in Sao Paulo. At the hotel in Rio where I stopped I 
counted twenty-eight Americans seated on the veranda one 
evening, and all praised the conditions there. 

Sao Paulo has many educational institutions, the most popu- 
lar of which is McKenzie College, which was established by a 




AMERICAN VICE-CONSUL, MR. LEE, AND HIS FAMILY, ON THE 
VERANDA OF HIS RESIDENCE, SAO PAULO. 



BRAZIL 



SO- 




WATCHING A RUGBY FOOTBALL GAME AT SAO PAULO, BRAZIL. 



Canadian. It is patronized largely by the Americans, who send 
their children to it on account of its superior educational ad- 
vantages. This institution has a first-class technical department 
and has graduated many high-class engineers. There is a great 
demand throughout all South America for engineers who can 
speak Portuguese and Spanish, a demand that is being met by 
men of English and French descent, there being a tendency 
among the native Portuguese and Spanish young men to be- 
come "doctors" of law or medicine, or to take up politics. They 
do not fancy the hardships encountered in the life of an en- 
gineer, preferring the ease of city life. 

There is a very large colony of English people in Sao Paulo, 
as was evidenced by a Rugby football game I saw there. The 
immense crowd was just as enthusiastic as any you ever saw in 
the United States. Horse-racing is well patronized in this 
region by the public, as are other outdoor sports. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL. 

I ONCE knew a country merchant who had a sign on the 
door of his store which read, "Come in Without Knocking. 
Go Out the Same Way." Good advice, especially for personal 
and private matters, but one could hardly give a valuable 
description of a country without some "knocking." If compe- 
tition is the life of trade, criticism is the life of truth. How- 
ever, in describing Brazil I find it difficult to keep from 
continually praising, since the beauty and natural advantages 
of the country are so great. Nevertheless, they have bad and 
foolish people in Brazil the same as in other countries, and it 
is Heaven only to people who "get to Heaven" by knowing how 
to make one on earth. 

No story of Brazil would be complete without special ref- 
erence to the southern part which, by reason of its geographi- 
cal position, belongs to that section of South America where 
cattle raising and agricultural pursuits are the greatest source 
of wealth. The development of this section of Brazil is of 
vital interest to the people of the United States, for the prices 
of grain and live stock are in a great measure controlled by 
conditions in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay ' and southern 
Brazil, because they are our competitors in the markets of the 
world. 

The section is divided into three States — Parana, Santa 
Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul. Originally Parana was a 
part of Sao Paulo, from which it was separated in 1853, dur- 
ing the reign of Dom Pedro. Possessing an area of 86,000 
square miles — larger than the State of Minnesota — Parana 
has two distinct zones ; the lower, consisting of a strip of land 
along the coast, is semi-tropical and produces all the fruits 
and vegetables of a climate that is always warm ; the upper 
zone consists of plateaux which have the climate and soil of 

506 



5o8 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

the temperate zone, and yield the products usually harvested 
in such latitudes. 

The series of plateaux, which stretch westward from the 
coast range of mountains to the Parana River, is the most 
thickly settled section of the interior, and is in a flourishing 
state of cultivation. The capital, Curytiba, and the farming 
communities, are situated on this table-land, the western 
portion of which is especially adapted to cattle raising. This 
section of the country is well watered. That portion of Parana 
which lies along the seashore is generally flat and marshy, and 
the climate less agreeable than that of the interior. This State, 
which possesses area and resources sufficient for the mainte- 
nance of a population of many millions, should attract an 
increasing tide of immigration. Its progress and prosperity de- 
pend only upon the increase of population — which at present 
does not exceed 550,000 — and the extension of railroads to give 
it efficient transportation. 

From Paranagua, the seaport through which the main 
traffic of Parana is conducted, a railway stretches back into 
the interior, curves around to the northeast after leaving 
Curytiba, and at length reaches the city of Sao Paulo. The 
road is a masterpiece of engineering and was built in 1883 by 
a Belgian corporation. A trip over this line affords a view 
of unusual scenic magnificence. 

Curytiba, the capital, is a city of about 55,000 inhabitants, 
and is situated on the plateau, about sixty miles from the 
coast, at an elevation of some three thousand feet above sea 
level. It is one of the largest cities in southern Brazil. It is 
a thoroughly modern town, with spacious, well-paved streets, 
lighted with electricity and traversed in all directions by 
street cars. 

On the plateaux barley, oats, wheat, rye, corn and pota- 
toes are cultivated, and grape raising for the production of 
wine is highly developed. This State possesses exceedingly 
valuable forests and mines. Large fortunes have been made 
in the yerba mate business, which flourishes all through the 
State where the altitude is above 2,000 feet. 

Parana ranks eighth among the twenty-two States of Brazil 
in the value of its export trade, and with the completion of 



BRAZIL 509 

projected railroad lines, affording better transportation from 
the interior, will take a still higher rank. 

The State of Santa Catharina, which lies south of Parana, 
is only about half the size of the latter, and as its surface 
corresponds to that of Parana the pursuits of the people and 
its products are quite similar, though leaning more to the tropi- 
cal on account of its longer coast line and consequent greater 
area of low land where the weather is warmer. 

The" fertile soil and salubrious climate of Santa Catharina 
make it especially adapted to colonization, and nowhere in 
Brazil have the foreign communities flourished better. Con- 
sidering its size, Santa Catharina is better supplied with rail- 
roads than any other section of Brazil, and more lines are 
projected. 

Florianopolis, the capital of the State, is situated on an 
island by the same name. The city faces the mainland, from 
which it is separated by a strait about five miles in width. It 
is one of the most picturesque and beautiful places in Brazil, 
its residence section being noted for the many beautiful homes 
that overlook the Atlantic. 

To the south of Santa Catharina lies the State of Rio 
Grande do Sul, one of the most important divisions of 
Brazil. The chief revenue of Rio Grande do Sul is derived 
from the pasture lands, upon which graze thousands of herds. 

The xarqueados, or slaughtering establishments, where the 
dried beef, called xarque, is prepared for market, present 
an interesting, though rather gruesome appearance when the 
work is going on. The meat is dried in the sun, and an exten- 
sive area is covered with the racks on which the beef is sus- 
pended until ready for shipment. The dried beef exports 
amount annually to more than $6,000,000, the establishments 
at the town of Pelotas alone slaughtering half a million head 
of cattle for this purpose. Without doubt this is the greatest 
"jerked meat" region in the world. 

The climate of Rio Grande do Sul is moderate and agree- 
able, though the four seasons are distinct, as in all temperate 
zones. In the winter the cold winds from the Andes Moun- 
tains cause freezing weather in the more elevated regions, 
while in the summer the heat is sometimes extreme. 



BRAZIL 511 

However, in Brazil, as in all countries, the effect of dif- 
ference in temperature and altitude is noticeable in the charac- 
ter and energy of the people ; residents of hot, low regions are 
apt to be less energetic and prosperous than people who live 
in high, cool regions. 

They tell of a man in Indiana, who lived down on the 
Wabash bottoms, and who was so lazy and worthless that 
there was talk of burying him alive. He said he didn't care 
if they did. Finally he went to North Dakota and took up 
some land. He changed at once and became a tremendous 
worker and grew rich. Wishing to take life easier, he sold 
out and went to the Sandwich Islands where, in the heat, he 
grew almost too lazy to chew his food or dress himself and, 
as a consequence, lost all his money. A friend got hold of 
him and took him to cold Manitoba, where, report says, he is 
now "working like a nailer," and getting rich again. He was 
a human barometer, you see, as we all are in some degree. 
One sees the effect of climate reflected in the looks and condi- 
tions of people all through South America. 

Most of the colonists of Rio Grande do Sul are Germans ; 
in fact, they form a large percentage of the population, though 
occupying only about one-third of the State. Following the 
plan of sending European colonists to the section of Brazil 
best suited to them by reason of climate and labor conditions, 
the Germans naturally went to the highlands of Rio Grande 
do Sul. They prospered, and their friends and relatives came 
in droves; they formed communities, towns and cities where 
the German language is spoken and German customs prevail. 

The chief seaport of the State is the city of Rio Grande do 
Sul, situated at the southern end of a large lake called Lagoa 
dos Patos, where a narrow strait connects the lake with the 
ocean. A big sandbar at the mouth of the harbor having 
been removed by dredging, ocean-going vessels now call at 
this port, a fact that has greatly aided the commerce of the 
State. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 
NORTH AND WEST OF RIO. 

EVERYBODY envies the traveling man — except the travel- 
ing man himself ; he soon wearies of the constant change 
and starts on each successive trip with about the same eagerness 
that is displayed by a small boy who is forced to go to school 
when the fishing is fine. 

After an extended stay in Rio de Janeiro, where I made 
many pleasant acquaintances and stopped at a really good 
hotel, I felt something like the traveling salesman — or the 
small boy — when I realized that again it was time to move on. 

Journeying north from Rio Grande do Sul, my first stop 
was in the State of Espirito Santo, the capital of which is 
Victoria, one of the oldest cities of Brazil, though it possesses 
only about 20,000 population. This little State, which has an 
area of only 25,000 square miles, ranks third in Brazil in the 
production of coffee. Aside from coffee, its principal pro- 
ducts are sugar and rice. 

I was glad to note that the people of this State recognize 
the importance of good roads, and that the Government was 
sparing no expense in improving and extending the highways. 
Railway construction is also being pushed, and the Federal 
Government is improving the harbor at Victoria at a cost of 
$5,000,000. In the opinion of many the harbor at Victoria, 
while smaller than that of Rio de Janeiro, is equally as beau- 
tiful. • 

Northwest of Espirito Santo lies the great State of Minas 
Geraes, which covers an area of 250,000 square miles in the 
heart of a rich mineral and agricultural region, the greater 
portion of which is an elevated plateau, forming part of the 
vast table-land of Brazil. Although it is one of the interior 
States, easy access to the ports of Rio de Janeiro and Victoria 
and excellent railway facilities afford every advantage in the 

512 



514 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

promotion of trade relations, while in climate and fertility no 
State in Brazil is, probably, more favored. 

The capital of the State is Bello Horizonte, a new and 
flourishing city of over 20,000 inhabitants, which is only ten 
years old. The city is remarkable for its wide, shaded ave- 
nues and the distinctly modern architecture of its buildings. 
In driving over its boulevards one is reminded of our capital 
city, Washington, D. C. 

The Governor's palace is one of the handsomest State 
capitals in all Brazil, and was erected at a cost of $500,000 gold. 
Not only is the city well paved, well lighted and provided with 
a complete system of electric street cars, but its waterworks 
system is a marvel and the drainage is perfect. 

The fertility of the soil of this State permits the cultivation 
of all kinds of products, and upon the plains of the upper 
plateaux cattle raising is extensive. Since the introduction of 
modern implements and machinery here crops of all kinds 
have greatly increased. 

One of the chief products of Minas Geraes is coffee, 
which is grown on an extensive scale in the southern section. 
In order to encourage the cultivation of cereals the State has 
adopted a protective tariff on all grains that can be grown 
on its soil. There are unlimited opportunities for the small 
farmer in this quarter of the world. 

Railways traverse this State in every direction, there being 
upward of 3,000 miles in operation and more in the course of 
construction. Few countries can boast of such an abundance 
of mineral wealth as Minas Geraes, which derives its name 
(meaning "general mines") from the industry that first made 
it conspicuous. 

Gold was discovered in this territory in the seventeenth 
century, since which time the amount of this glittering "root 
of all evil" taken from its mines is said to run into the billions 
of dollars. No accurate account was kept of the gold pro- 
duced during the first century after its discovery. 

The diamond mines of this State have been famous for 
nearly two centuries, the quality of its gems surpassing those 
of any other country. One of the historic gems of the world, 
the "Braganza," came from a mine near Caethe. "The Re- 



BRAZIL 



515 



gent," another great diamond, worth several millions, was 
found by a man who, convicted of a capital offense, was con- 
demned to spend his days in the wilds. Through a priest he 
sent the valuable gem to the Governor and received in return 
a pardon for his offense. Rather lucky and romantic, wasn't 
it? 

The "Estrella do Sul," a diamond now possessed by an 




SEEN FROM A TRAIN IN MINAS GERAES. 



Oriental potentate, the Rajah of Baroda, was picked up in the 
western part of Minas Geraes by a negro woman slave, who 
gave it to her master as the price of her freedom. It after- 
ward sold for $15,000,000 and still ranks among the biggest 
diamonds in existence. Men have laid down their lives in the 
cause of liberty, but this is, undoubtedly, the highest price 
ever paid in money value by an individual for freedom. 



5i6 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

One of the greatest mining swindles ever perpetrated in 
the United States was based on a mythical diamond mine in 
Brazil. Through false representations the promoters of this 
swindle interested a prominent Chicago man, the publisher of 
the largest daily and weekly paper printed in a foreign lan- 
guage in this city, and he was made president of the corpora- 
tion. Because of this man's connection with the enterprise, 
hundreds of his friends and countrymen invested in it, and after 
the usual wait for returns on their investment, the bubble burst 
and the swindlers fled, leaving the honorable man they had 
used as a tool to face the swindled investors, and he felt the 
disgrace so keenly that it ultimately resulted in his death. 

While in Brazil I inadvertently ran across one of the men 
who had benefited by the promotion of this fake company, 
and learned that the company had never owned a foot of 
ground in Brazil, that the pictures of its alleged diamond 
mines and other property were picked up wherever they 
could find them, and that all its literature was faked for the 
purpose of securing investors in a project that existed only on 
paper. 

To the north of Minas Geraes, and bordering on the 
Atlantic coast, is the State of Bahia, which has an area of 
about 200,000 square miles. It is rich in mineral resources, 
and new discoveries are constantly being made as the exten- 
sion of railroads through the interior leads to the opening up 
of hitherto unexplored regions. 

The State is rich in vegetation and the agricultural indus- 
tries are in a flourishing condition ; in fact, the ease with 
which a crop can be raised in this State gives rise to a condi- 
tion one might call laziness (maybe the people are afflicted 
with the hookworm), for about all that is necessary to do is 
to put the seed in the ground and harvest the crop when it 
is ripe. Tobacco, coffee, cotton and rubber thrive in this "para- 
dise for tired people." There are big sugar plantations, and 
cacao production reaches thousands of tons each year. 

Bahia, the capital of the State, is on the Atlantic coast, 
about eight hundred miles north of Rio de Janeiro. It is the 
third city in point of population in Brazil, having about 280,- 
000 inhabitants, of whom 60,000 are white and 220,000 are 



518 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

negroes. This proportion gives a good idea of the population 
of the entire State. In slavery days, Bahia (or San Salvador 
as it was then called) was one of the chief distributing points 
of the Portuguese slave traffic, and now, with the preponder- 
ance in negro population, little distinction is made between the 
races. In other words, this is one community where the black 
man is considered as good as a white man, and the races mix 
freely in social and business relations. 

One instance will suffice to explain the conditions. At a 
reception given by one of the State officials I noticed a young 
woman who was unmistakably of negro descent. She appeared 
to be "the belle of the ball," and I made inquiry regarding her 
and discovered she was the daughter of a State official, having 
but recently returned from France, where she had been study- 
ing art. 

Although only ten degrees south of the equator, Bahia has 
a balmy, beautiful climate. Many of the ignorant blacks go 
half naked all through the year. They are decidedly super- 
stitious, and the "voodoo" doctor is a man of might in their 
estimation. They have great faith in the efficacy of real snake 
poison for certain ailments. They, of course, use it in greatly 
diluted form. In tests made with it in full strength it has 
been known to kill a rabbit in five seconds. 

Northeast of Bahia lies the little State of Sergipe, which is 
the Rhode Island of Brazil. Although it covers only 15,000 
square miles, it is very productive and supports a population 
of 450,000 inhabitants. The land lying along the coast is low 
and marshy, while that of the interior is elevated, drained by 
numerous small streams, and has a fine soil. 

Aracaju, the capital, is a city of 25,000 inhabitants, and 
is situated on the coast at the mouth of the Cotinguiba River. 
It is a typical tropical city, with the exception that the streets 
are broad and well paved. The principal towns of the interior 
are situated in the districts where the cotton and sugar 
industries flourish. The cotton mills are a big feature in the 
industrial life of this State. 

Just north of Sergipe is the little State of Alagoas, which 
is about the size of Ireland. The productivity of its soil is 



BRAZIL 



5i9 



phenomenal, everything that belongs to a tropical land being 
grown with trifling cultivation. 

Alagoas is noted for a wonderful waterfall, known as the 
Cachoeira de Paulo Affonso, which is superior in height and 
volume to our own Niagara. I viewed it with pleasure, but 
missed the persistent hackmen who make life a burden for 
the sightseer at Niagara, and the spoony "honeymooners" one 
encounters at every turn there. 

One does not notice much change in manners, customs or 
industries in passing from Alagoas to the State of Pernam- 
buco, which is about the size of the State of New York, no 
matter how small it looks on the map. , If one hasn't been 
warm before, one is here. 

Pernambuco, the farthest city eastward in South America, 
is the capital of the State. It is often called Recife, a name 
derived from the narrow reef (recife in Portuguese means 
"reef") that lines the coast for a great many miles. Steamers 











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SNAPSHOT OF A WAYSIDE SCENE. 



BRAZIL 521 

that draw more than twenty feet of water do not attempt to 
enter the harbor except at high tide, and many of the larger 
boats do not enter, unless they are to receive or discharge a 
large cargo. 

The town is divided into three sections separated by lagoons, 
across which are substantial bridges, and the population, esti- 
mated at 200,000, is principally negroes, though I made no 
attempt to count noses to ascertain the exact proportions. 

Hotel accommodations in Pernambuco are good — if you do 
not expect too much. If you have just - ome from home and are 
accustomed to scrupulous cleanliness, excellent service and 
fine cooking, they will appear meager and dirty. But if you 
are on a long trip through the different countries of South 
America, where you encounter every condition from the most 
luxurious comforts to sleeping on the ground in the heart of a 
tropical swamp, the hotels of Pernambuco will not seem so bad. 
If you are very hungry, you may act as if you enjoy the food, 
and if you sprinkle insect powder between the sheets of your 
bed the chances are that you will also sleep. 

From Pernambuco the large steamers sail directly to Para, 
near the mouth of the Amazon, and being satisfied with my in- 
vestigations of the East Coast, I took boat for that city, eager 
to see the "King of Rivers," and the great valley that may 
justly be called the "Mother of Rubber." 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



PARA AND THE AMAZON BASIN. 

OF ALL the Brazilian States, Para has the longest stretch 
of .seacoast, nearly seven hundred miles. We passed a 
number of lighthouses as we voyaged toward the capital. 
Evidently the pilots need protection in these waters, especially 
on account of the great river-bars and shifting islands of sand 
in the vicinity of the mouth of the Amazon. It is a region of 
tremendous tides and currents. 

In speaking of the city of Para, I am tempted to call it 
"Para the Beautiful." In Brazil they have a saying which 
runs, "Who goes to Para stays there." This will express to 
the reader more, perhaps, than if I attempted a long descrip- 
tion of the place. In short, it is considered one of the most 
delightful residence places in northern Brazil. Its public build- 
ings and homes are unusually attractive, 
and it seems much like a city built in the 
midst of a great tropic garden. Para 
lies back of a beautiful and spacious 
bay, on the waters of which come and 
go sea and river craft of all sorts. 
Wealth has poured into Para in recent 
years, and its results are very apparent. 
It has a population of over 100,000. Its 
boulevards and parks are uncommonly 
fine, and they have an opera house here, 
the Theatro da Paz, which is one of the 
most sumptuous in South America. 
Excellent European companies are en- 
gaged by the Government every season, 
to give a series of operas in this theater. 
You see, they are very "up to date." 




CHARLIE, MY FAITH- 
FUL SERVANT. 



522 



BRAZIL 



5->3 



The State of Para is the third largest in Brazil. It is an 
enormous and rich piece of country. Some of the Para statis- 
ticians have estimated that their State would give room to, 
and support, half the population of Europe. I v/ill not dispute 
their concl usions, 
but the question is: 
Would they want half 
the population of Eu- 
rope, if they could 
get it? They have 
room and freedom 
and opportunity now, 
and these always 
grow less as human- 
ity crowds together. 

Of one thing they 
can truthfully boast 
in Para; it is the 
greatest rubber port 
in the world. Rubber 
alone contributes to 
the State and munici- 
palities over twenty- 
five per cent of their 
incomes. The annual 
crop of rubber gath- 
ered in this State 
amounts to about 24,- 
000,000 pounds, val- 
ued at from $20,000,- 
000 to $25,000,000, 
according to the price 
prevailing here. How- 
ever, they have be- 
sides rubber other 
rich resources in the 

State of Para. Their output of cacao is a big one, over 
6,000,000 pounds annually. Estimate it in cups of chocolate 
if you like ; the result may quench your thirst. 




FASTENING RUBBER HAMS 
FOR SHIPMENT. 



TOGETHER 



524 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

The forest wealth of the State of Para is enormous, an6 
they have Brazil nuts in quantities unlimited. Then there are 
sugar, gold, dyewoods, precious stones, marble, slate, gums, 
tobacco, cattle, fisheries, hardwoods and other valuable things. 
It is a fine country to settle in, you see. Yes, and the climate 
is excellent ; it is, for the most part, a country swept by the 
breath of the sea, though it is sometimes really hot, and there is 
a great deal of rain. But the great thing is rubber. In Para, 
life is measured in terms of rubber; the docks are lined with 
warehouses for its handling, and the water-front is so crowded 
with it one smells it before he lands at the dock. Being so im- 
portant a thing, we will use a little space in talking about it. 

Human nature and this important industry cropped out in a 
recently-quoted conversation. Said one American to another: 

"Did you hear about Muckraker's good luck?" 

"No," replied the other. "Have things been coming his 
way?" 

"They certainly have. He recently landed a big series of 
articles with a magazine, in which he denounced the automo- 
bile business and showed from every possible point of view 
that automobiles are bad things and ought to be abolished." 

"That was fine. What did he do with the money?" 

"Bought an automobile." 

Probably he never would have bought one had it not been 
for rubber tires. In fact, when one considers the matter, it 
seems possible that we would still be in the "horse and buggy 
age" were it not for the strange and useful substance we call 
rubber. It is an odd, half-romantic story, that of rubber. 
The records say that early travelers, Columbus himself being 
one of them, noticed that the Indians of South America (which 
then was supposed to be a part of the East Indies) played ball 
with an odd elastic substance grown in the tropical forests, 
and prepared for use by a process known only to the natives. 
The red man also fashioned a crude sort of shoes from this 
substance, and bottles which could be squeezed together to 
eject liquid contents. The American aborigines, you see, 
knew considerable about rubber at a date when the balance 
of mankind were entirely ignorant of it. 

The Spaniards called the stuff goma elastica — that is, elas- 



BRAZIL 



525 



tic gum, and at first it was regarded only with curiosity. How- 
ever, it was presently imported to Europe and studied chemi- 
cally, exciting great interest in the laboratories. This seems 
almost humorous, considering how common a thing rubber 
is today, but, remember, it was "funny stuff" and unknown up 
to that time. 

However, the chemists presently found a way to shape 
the substance into tubes, which being elastic and yielding, 
were for certain uses, a great improvement on rigid pipes 
made of metal. Then, in 1770, an English chemist named 
Priestley discovered that the gum was an excellent thing for 
erasing the marks of the lead pencil. It rubbed out the marks, 
hence it was a "rubber," and having been discovered in what 
had been supposed to be India, it became known as "India 
rubber," and there you have the origin of its name. 

After that it became more widely known, as experiments 
showed its commercial value, and in 1823 a man named Mack- 
intosh discovered a method of waterproofing garments with 
the substance ; then in 1839 Nelson Goodyear, in the United 
States, hit upon a method of combining rubber with sulphur. 




A RUBBER-GATHERING CAMP IN INTERIOR BRAZIL. 



526 ILLUSTRATED SOJJTH AMERICA 

which became known as vulcanization. After that this gummy 
product of the tropics entered more and more into commerce, 
until today it compares favorably with iron, copper and glass, 
in the diversity of its uses. 

In fact, with the great numbers of vehicles demanded by 
modern life, existence would be well-nigh intolerable without 
this noise-deadening substance ; besides, without it as insula- 
tion an entirely new method of telegraphing and telephoning 
would have to be invented. And our modern fire-fighting 
service, what would that be without rubber hose? One can 
hardly conceive how crippled human processes would be had 
we no such thing as the flexible pipe. Indeed, a whole chap- 
ter might be written on the uses of rubber alone, for it enters 
into the manufacture of scores of useful things. 

But what is this curious substance? Why, simply ten 
atoms of carbon to sixteen atoms of hydrogen fused into a 
compound. It looks so easy that thousands of chemists have 
dreamed of producing artificial rubber, and thereby "making 
a mint of money." But the little trick of infusing life and 
elasticity into the artificial compound has not yet been found. 
You see, there is an immense difference between organic chem- 
istry and artificial chemistry, the difference between God, or 
Nature, mixing the atoms, and man doing it. Just exactly 
what makes that difference is one of the mysteries that the 
mind of man has not yet solved, and probably it is well for us 
that we have not, and very likely never will. 

Again, leaving the chemical definition aside, what is rub- 
ber? Simply the "butter" from the cream of the milk taken 
from a certain variety of tree or shrub. Sounds like dairy 
talk, doesn't it? Well, the simile is not so very far-fetched, 
since there is milk and then cream, and the coagulation of the 
cream into rubber is actually being now accomplished in 
some regions by a separator apparatus similar to that used 
in dairies. 

The scientific name for this "milk" is latex, and it is not 
the same as the sap of the tree, for it runs in different chan- 
nels and performs a different function. As this latex flows 
from the cut in the rubber tree, it has much the appearance 
of milk, and acts in the same way. Like milk, if left to itself, 



BRAZIL 



527 



it separates into a lower fluid with a creamy surface mass, 
which, when coagulated, is India rubber. So if you are anx- 
ious to enter the dairy busi- 
ness, go to Brazil, buy a grove, 
in the State of Para or on the 
upper Amazon, and "milk the 
trees." 

Rubber is essentially and al- 
ways rubber, no matter from 
what quarter of the world it 
comes. The trees that yield 
it are peculiarly tropical, and, 
though there are rubber-pro- 
ducing plants outside of tropi- 
cal forests, the great mass of 
the product is gathered from 
a comparatively narrow belt 
on both sides of the equator. 
There are a great many 
sorts of rubber-bearing trees 
and plants, but the rubber tree 
par excellence is the hevea 
species, which is indigenous to 
the Amazon River basin and 
the vast watershed drained by 
the Amazon's tributaries. The 
hevea specimen is a large tree, 
often as much as twelve feet 
in circumference, which from 
its fourth year begins to yield 
milk, and after that may be 
systematically tapped for 
twenty years or longer. On 
account of the rich soil, the 
tropic warmth and abundant 
moisture, the forests of this 
species of tree are far larger 
and more general in the Ama- 
zon Basin than are rubber- 

RUBBER-BEARING TREE, SHOWING 
THE SCARS OF PAST TAPPING. 




5^ 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



bearing trees of any sort elsewhere in the world. Hence 
nearly one-half of all the rubber used by mankind conies from 
the Amazon region, and Para is its greatest port of shipment. 
Speaking of the Amazon brings me to consideration of this 
greatest of rivers. When one faces the task of trying to de- 
scribe the Amazon River, one involuntarily feels the need of a 
new form of human expression, some sort of symbols that are 
bigger and stronger and more vivid than mortal words. When 




A RUBBER PORT ON THE AMAZON. 



an individual contemplates the Amazon his feeling is much as 
it is with almost every writer who stands beside the Grand Can- 
yon of the Colorado and looks down into that indescribable 
gorge ; it simply overwhelms the mind's power of description. 
One has to conceive of any specified thing by examples and 
comparisons, and there is no stream of water anywhere with 
which effectively to compare the Amazon. Why not use our 
Mississippi River in the United States for comparison? Well, 



BRAZIL 



529 



there are at least a dozen rivers fairly comparable with the Mis- 
sissippi flowing into the Amazon — rivers each more than a 
thousand miles in length and from one -to three miles wide, 
while the Amazon itself is 3,700 miles in length, and through- 
out its main body in times of flood is from thirty to one hun- 
dred miles in width and has a mouth nearly two hundred 
miles wide. In this mouth lies the island of Marajo, the 




RUBBER GATHERER S HOME ON THE UPPER AMAZON RIVEI 
34 



530 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




A BRAZILIAN BOA CONSTRICTOR. 



size of the State of Massachusetts, and the vast flood pour- 
ing out into the sea colors the Atlantic Ocean for two hun- 
dred miles. You ob- 
serve, the Amazon 
River is one of the 
earth's very biggest 
things; in fact, like 
the ocean, it is so big 
one cannot really 
see it. 

There is a reason 
for the bigness of 
this matchless 
stream, and the rea- 
son is that it drains 
a basin that is almost inconceivable in extent. Beginning as 
an impetuous mountain stream, away up in the Andes Moun- 
tains, sixteen thousand feet above sea level, and within less 
than one hundred miles of Lima, Peru, on the Pacific Ocean, 
it flows eastward clear across the South American continent, 
drawing into its majestically moving flood literally hundreds 
of rivers and thousands of smaller affluents. Like most big 
things, it is normally placid, save where its measureless volume 
bores into the liquid flank of the Atlantic ; naturally at that 
point there is thunder and widespread watery turmoil from 
the shock and heave of the meeting of two such gigantic forces. 
The first descent of the Amazon was made by the Spanish 
explorer Orellana, in 1541. The journey was a wild and 
romantic one. Among many fights and adventures, his party 
had a battle with the Tapuya tribe of Indians. The women of 
this tribe always help to do the fighting, and from this fact the 
river took its fanciful name. 

But the bigness of the country that it drains ! The Brazil- 
ian State of Amazonas alone, which lies within the basin, cov- 
ers an area of 800,000 square miles, equal in size to all of the 
United States east of the Mississippi River. Then the great 
rivers that flow into it ! The Rio Negro from Venezuela, the 
Madeira from Bolivia, the Jurua, Purus, and Javary from 
Peru, the Iga and Japura from Colombia, the Napo from 



532 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Ecuador, and dozens of others. Taking the Amazon itself, 
together with this vast radiation of navigable tributaries, you 
have unquestionably the world's greatest system of natural 
internal highways. 

An attempted detailed description of so immense a coun- 
try as the Amazon Basin would simply result in confusion to 
the mind. It is somewhat like trying to get a mental grip on 
the thing astronomers call "space," no mind was ever yet big 
enough really to grasp "all out doors," you know. Suffice it 
to say, the entire basin of the Amazon covers an area of seven 
million square kilometers. A kilometer is equal to about two- 
thirds of an American mile. Figure it out yourself, please. 
The writer of a book should not have to do all the work, 
should he? Of course, portions of this basin extend into Peru, 
Ecuador and Bolivia, but nevertheless the drainage is into the 




SOME AMAZON VALLEY PARROTS. 



BRAZIL 533 

Amazon, and the size and extent of that "rivulet" is what we 
are considering. 

Reluctantly leaving the pleasant city of Para, we sailed one 
morning for Manaos, the capital of Amazonas State, nearly 
one thousand miles up the Amazon River. All day our steamer 
was among the channels and green islands of the mighty river's 
mouth. In fact, we did not find ourselves on the main stream 
until the following morning. After that the broad liquid way 
stretched before us, seemingly without limit or end. Some- 
times we caught glimpses of islands of floating waste, and then 
again long sweeps of water, much like the open sea. Then, 
again, we were sailing for hours along the shore, looking upon 
its wild tangle of verdure. The water of the Amazon is al- 
ways "roily," being laden with the soil-wash of an almost 
incalculably great area. Its depth averages from seventy-live 
to two hundred and fifty feet, and, its width being so great, it 
is difficult sometimes to realize that one is voyaging up a river. 

The journey by steamer up the Amazon is strange and 
impressive. In the main, it seems to be about twenty miles 
in width, but in periods of flood it simply "covers the whole 
country," hence the reports of its enormous width, which in a 
sense are true. At long distances there are towns on the high 
grounds, and splendid plantations, but, for the most part, the 
shores are endless reaches of forest and jungle. Time was 
when this "sea-river" was closed to other ships than Brazilian 
boats, but in 1866 the river was opened to the vessels and com- 
merce of all nations. Now there are ships coming from and 
going to all parts of Europe and America from Amazon ports ; 
there are lines of great steamers on the main stream, lines of 
somewhat smaller steamers on the big tributaries, and launches 
and small craft of all sorts on the affluent branches. Every- 
where the smaller boats are gathering the products of the 
basin — rubber, cocoanuts, hardwoods, dyewoods, pelts, tropical 
fruits and other commodities — and bringing them down to 
Manaos and Para and other ports. It is estimated that over 
3,000,000 tons of products come down the Amazon every sea- 
son, and yet the real productiveness of the region has scarcely 
been touched. 

Just before we reached the State capital of Amazonas, our 



534 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



steamer turned from the Amazon into the mouth of the Rio 
Negro (the Negro River). This river is of a rich, dark choco- 
late color, fifteen hundred miles in length, and is from three to 
five miles in width. It heads far northward in Colombia. 
Manaos, the capital, lies seven miles up this river from the 
Amazon. • Manaos is a big, beautiful town, with fine architec- 
ture and every modern improvement. Lying near the center 
of the Amazon Basin, its commerce is large and its influence 
great. As in Para, the warehouses and floating docks along 
the river-front are so given over to the handling of rubber that 
the very air is laden with its odor. But for the time being I 
was looking for rubber in its native state and not for the com- 
mercial handling of it. 

Brazilian territory known to produce rubber covers 1,000,- 
ooo square miles, and up the Rio Negro, or upon almost any 
of the rivers, one soon comes to rubber camps and gatherers 

in the forests. The ex- 
istence of these peo- 
ple is strange, primi- 
t i v e, remote. The 
rubber gatherers are 
largely tame Indians, 
negroes and half- 
breeds. 

I found that a sys- 
tematic division of 
labor is made on all 
the great rubber es- 
tates, each collector 
being given his hut 
and utensils and a 
specified territory to 
work, the trees being 
connected by paths in 
a loop that takes the 
collector back to his 
starting point when 
his day's tapping is 
finished. 




A RUBBER TREE AND GATHERER. NOTE 
THE CUPS ATTACHED FOR CATCH- 
ING THE "MILK." 



BRAZIL 



535 



I spent a day with one of these tappers. They are called 
seringueiros or caucheros, according to the region and lan- 
guage employed. Very early in the morning we took the trail 
through the forest ; about us was a tangle of tropic growth, 
above us almost a solid roof of verdure; monkeys swung 
through the branches, gayly colored birds flew to and fro, the 
air was damp and warm. Each rubber tree that we came to 
the tapper gashed with a sort of little hatchet, fastening a tin 
cup under each gash. When nearly a hundred trees had been 
tapped, we returned, hot and tired, to his hut. Near evening 
we made the rounds of the rubber trees again, gathering the 
milk from the cups in a large vessel. The tapper then built a 




TAPPING A RIT.r.ER TREE. 



536 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



fire, sprinkling it with palmetto nuts, that gave off a dense 
white smoke with creosote properties. 

On either side of the fire were two forked poles, support- 
ing a horizontal pole over the blaze. With his right hand the 
tapper slapped the rubber milk on the pole by means of a 
wooden paddle, while with the left hand he kept turning the 
pole round and round in the smoke. Larger and larger grew 
the ball, as he added fresh milk to that already coagulated, and 
in this primitive manner a kind of "ham" of rubber was 
formed, and was ready to be shipped by trail and canoe to the 
nearest river port. 

Thousands, yes, tens of thousands, of these lonely men, in 




A RUBBER GATHERER SMOKING THE PRODUCT INTO A 
RUBBER HAM. 



BRAZIL 



537 



the forests of Brazil, are daily going through the routine of 
labor I have described, for most of the rubber used by man- 
kind is originally gathered in this simple, primitive manner. 
In the State of Amazonas alone 150,000 men are engaged in 
the business of gathering and marketing these rubber "smoked 
hams" of the forest. 

From statistics given by the Manaos Congress in 19 10 I 
gather that the world's total production of rubber amounted 
in that year to about 146,000,000 pounds ; of this some 78,000,- 
000 pounds came from South America, chiefly from the Ama- 
zon Basin. Of this latter quantity 29,200,000 pounds came to 
the United States. You see we are largely riding on rubber 
these days, so it takes a great deal of it. All rubber is admitted 
into the United States free of duty, as is coffee also, so ninety- 
nine per cent of all the imports into the United States from 
Brazil are admitted free. 

As for the Amazon Basin, some time it will support an 
enormous section of the human race. There are vast areas 
suitable for cattle raising, great tillable uplands, immense for- 
ests of valuable timber, priceless deposits of minerals. It is 
simply so big that mankind has not yet made much of an im- 
pression on it, and so wonderful no writer yet has fully 
described it. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

t HE MADEIRA AND MAMORE RAILWAY. 

I LEFT picturesque Manaos with some regret, for a long 
journey lay before me. I was bound for Porto Velho, far 
up the Madeira River, and to take a look at the wonderful 
railroad that American engineers have built to overcome the 
gigantic obstruction set in the path of navigation by the rapids 
and falls of the Madeira and Mamore Rivers. Before leaving 
Manaos, one has to contribute a head tax to the funds of the 
State. I had to pay nine dollars tax for each member of my 
party ; then with the steamship company, I had to deposit fifty 
dollars for myself and each of my men, to be turned over to 
the hospital board in Barbados for medical attention or 
funeral expenses in case we were sent to that island with the 
yellow fever. Of course, the money was ultimately returned 
to me, as we escaped the plague. This formality having been 
complied with, we were permitted to sail for the wonderland 
of the upper Madeira. 

You see, an enterprise of first-class importance has been 
going on through several years far out in the very heart of 
the South American wilds. The world has known little about 
it, but it has been of immense importance to the world ; it has 
meant the opening of a gateway to an extremely large area 
of rich and little known country, the making of a clear track 
for commerce between vast districts of Bolivia, Peru, and 
Brazil, and the mouth of the Amazon River and, beyond that, 
the civilized world. 

Brazil, and especially the Amazon Basin, is a region of 
''appalling distances." In traveling there one at times grows 
impatient, but the saving thing is that usually one grows lazy. 
To be lazy on board ship is not only excusable, it is fashion- 
able. By times, too, in these long stretches one mentally 
questions if "the game is worth the candle," if the object is 

538 



BRAZIL 



539 



worth the time and trouble? Of course, one is after some- 
thing; the question is, does he get it? 

"Hans," said Gottlieb, "did you efer puy a golt brick?" 
"Nein, nein," replied Hans. "I never puyed a golt brick, 
but once I puyed vat I thought vas one !" 

Sometimes during my journeys in South America it turned 
out like that ; the marvel I was seeking proved not to be gold, 
but just a plain "brick," but nearly always the object sought 
proved to be worth the price. 




ONE OF THE RAPIDS IN THE MADEIRA RIVER, BRAZIL. 



It was so in the long journey up the Madeira. For one 
thing, the traveler gets a very large and long-abiding com- 
prehension of what the word "forest" means. One reaches 
Porto Velho with an expanded conception of eternity, for it 
must have taken a very, very long time indeed for God to 
have made so much timber ! My impression was that on the 
Madeira River alone there was timber enough for all the na- 
tions of the earth, and I saw, naturally, but a "strip" of the 
whole. 



540 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Landing finally at Porto Velho, which is connected with 
Manaos by wireless, I found that the railroad was well along 
toward completion. The achievement, being so far from civili- 
zation, is stupendous. Only great quantities of cash and 
supreme "nerve" could have accomplished it. 

Mankind must have tools with which to do its work, and 
two of its very greatest tools are steel and water; in other 
words, railroads, rivers and seas. 

A man who has a sack of gold, but who is in the heart of 
a trackless forest, hundreds of miles from civilization, may 
be regarded as a lucky individual, but, strictly speaking, he 
cannot be accounted rich, for his gold will buy nothing there. 
His gold is no more than so many pebbles, until he transports 
it to a market where it can be exchanged for the world's com- 
modities or placed to his credit in a bank. 

This, as I have frequently mentioned, shows the impor- 
tance of adequate transportation, which has been the one 
thing lacking in the interior of Brazil, and the portions of 
Bolivia and Peru about the Amazon headwaters. 

Here is a domain half as large as the United States, amaz- 
ingly rich in mineral and agricultural possibilities, yet huge 
areas of it have literally no commercial value at the present 
time, because there is no cheap way of getting the products to 
a market where they will be of value. 

All of the navigable branches of the Amazon, through 
boat service, now pour into the channels of commerce a cer- 
tain share of the products of the interior, but the crying need 
is railroads to bring the products to the great rivers. 

The section of South America which is drained by the 
Madeira River and its tributaries has not shared in the pros- 
perity, enjoyed in continually growing volume by the other 
portions of the great basin, because of the difficulty in trans- 
porting the products of the region down the Madeira River 
rapids. The area drained by the Madeira and its principal 
tributary, the Mamore, is almost equal to that of the United 
States east of the Mississippi, and the products of this terri- 
tory must either go down the Madeira to the Amazon, or be 
carried over the Andes Mountains to the Pacific coast. To 
cross the rocky ramparts of the Andes with steel rails, bridges 



BRAZIL 



54i 




PULLING BOAT AROUND THE FALLS OF THE MADEIRA RIVER. 



and tunnels is not impossible to modern engineers, but it is all 
down hill and far cheaper to go in the other direction. 

The Madeira River is navigable for 660 miles from its 
junction with the Amazon, but beyond that, for a distance of 
200 miles, it is a series of rapids and falls of such stupendous 
force that no device of man can be conceived of sufficient 
ingenuity and power to carry exports or imports on the river 
itself, to or from a point above the dangerous water where 
navigation is again possible. 

For a century or more what products have come out of 
the immense region of the Upper Madeira, and what commod- 
ities have been taken into that territory, have been subjected 
to the expense of long portages around the various rapids and 
falls. Occasionally, during high water, the boatmen would haz- 
ard "shooting" some of the rapids, with the result that hun- 
dreds of lives and millions in property have been lost. 

As far back as 1846 the importance of some safe and cheap 
method of passing these rapids and falls was realized and dis- 



542 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



cussed, and in 1851 a United States naval officer reported 
that the sole obstacle to continued sailing from the Atlantic 
Ocean to Vinchuta, in Bolivia, was a series of nineteen falls 
and rapids in the Madeira and Mamore Rivers. In 1869 the 
Governments of Brazil and Bolivia engaged a famous engi- 
neer to outline the work necessary for the construction of a 
railroad around these rapids, the same to be known as the 
Madeira and Mamore Railway. 

In 1 87 1 work was begun on the project and continued 
some time, but the hardships and obstacles encountered were 
too great, and it was dropped. In 1878 the work was begun 
again by United States constructors and carried on for a 
year, with the result that a survey of 320 miles was cut 
through the dense forests, a train run on completed tracks 
for four miles, and right of way established by twenty-five 
miles of clearing. 

It is no wonder that the work stopped again, for it was 
being done in the heart of a tropical forest — a region that 
was, perhaps, the most unhealthful in all South America. The 
time was not ripe for the completion of the enterprise, and it 




INAUGURAL PARTY SEEING CONSTRUCTION ON THE MADEIRA- 
MAMORE RAILROAD, SEPTEMBER 8, I9II. 



BRAZIL 543 

languished until the United States demonstrated at Panama 
how to combat the diseases of the tropics. 

The history of the last attempt to build the railroad, which 
is meeting with success, began in 1906, when the Government 
of Brazil entered into a contract for its construction with 
Civil Engineer Joachim Catramby of Rio de Janeiro. He en- 
tered into an agreement with Percival Farquhar, an Ameri- 
can financier, and May & Jekyll were engaged in the United 
States to finish the construction for the company, which was 
incorporated in 1907 under the laws of Maine. Mr. Jekyll's 
home is in Ottawa, 111. While the railroad is being built for 
the Government it has already been leased for operation to 
the company that is constructing it, for a period of sixty years, 
from January 1, 191 2. 

The completed railway will cost $20,000,000, which is 
borne jointly by Brazil and Bolivia, and is to run from Porto 
Velho, on the Madeira, to a point beyond Villa Bella, in 
Bolivia. Shortly after I was there the third division of this 
important railroad was opened to traffic. 

The road now reaches the door of Bolivia, at the mouth 
of the Abuna River, and saves thirty days' dangerous detour 
around the treacherous rapids. The traveler and his wares 
may now go comfortably in ten hours, without risk, where 
formerly a month of untold hardships was considered a rea- 
sonable time to spend on the trip. Formerly the charges were 
about $300 per ton down the Madeira, and $400 per ton in 
going up. The main construction headquarters are at 
Porto Velho. From 4,000 to 5,000 men have been employed 
on the work ; of these 300 to 400 were Americans. They have 
a big hospital here, an ice plant and storehouses. The com- 
pany drilled wells in order to have good water for the men, and 
quinine was bought by the ton. Three men were kept busy 
from morning until night making quinine pills. Despite every 
precaution, sometimes from 300 to 400 sick men were in the 
hospital, and ten doctors and a small army of nurses were kept 
"on the jump." The difficulties have been enormous, but 
pluck and energy have triumphed. I am proud that this great 
work has been driven through to success by North Americans. 

When this road is entirely completed and open to traffic, 



544 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




WARD IN HOSPITAL FOR NATIVE LABORERS ON MADEIRA-MAMORE 
RAILROAD, BRAZIL. 



the eastern side of the Andes will fully realize its long-cher- 
ished dream of direct outlet to all the ports of the earth. 
Outward will go the inexhaustible riches of the country, 
inward will go the manufactures of the world and also settlers 
who will reap the benefit of this enterprise, which has cost 
so much in money and lives. 

The average American citizen who reads of this "land of 
promise" must not get the idea that life there is all sunshine 
and flowers, because I speak of its immense riches. Nature 
always protects her treasures in some way, and the pioneer 
who seeks them pays the price in some manner. This is nat- 
ural law and cannot be escaped. 

This territory is very close to the equator, and in the low- 
lands it gets hot and stays hot, while in portions of the high- 
lands of the eastern Andes it gets cold and stays cold. The 
rainfall in some sections approximates 200 inches a year, 
which, you will observe, makes a pretty heavy shower almost 
every day, if spread over the entire year. 



BRAZIL 



545 



They have mosquitoes there, and oh, my countrymen ! 
what mosquitoes ! A bite from one of them is an event long 
to be remembered, even if it does not inoculate you with one of 
the dread diseases of the tropics. Every one carries his own 
mosquito netting, and woe to the man who falls asleep with- 
out first protecting himself. 

A species of small spotted fly seems to exist by the mil- 
lions ; its bite is very painful and the effects of it last for days. 
There are small red ants, more numerous than one likes, having 
a bite that makes the skin feel as though it were being punc- 
tured by a red-hot needle. Aside from these there are numer- 
ous bugs and ants that make life miserable for the person who 
has no protection. 

There is considerable game, and the jaguar is plentiful. 
Swimming' is not an . . a/ 

attractive sport on 
account of the nu- 
merous alligato r s, 
electric eels and the 
pyranha, a fish with 
rows of needle-like 
teeth, which is blood- 
thirsty and aggres- 
sive. 

Yes, there are In- 
dians there, too. 

Some docile, dirty and lazy ; others are treacherous and likely 
to make trouble on the slightest provocation. You are never 
real sure of an Indian in his native state. 

However, the "iron horse of commerce" is the greatest 
civilizer yet conceived by the human mind; the Indians may 
"turn tail" and flee into the forests when its shrill whistle is 
first heard ; they may hide in the tangled tropical swamps and 
shoot poisoned arrows at it as it goes rushing by, but the time 
will come when they or their descendants will probably be 
shoveling coal into its fiery furnace or acting as brakemen on 
the train it pulls. 

One railroad always means more; the pioneer road has 
been constructed into the heart of this fertile region, and as 
35 




A JAGUAR, THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL 
OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN FORESTS. 



546 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

the years go by branches will radiate from it in every direc- 
tion, until the whole country is bound together by bands of 
steel, over which settlers will go in to take from the soil its 
vast riches. In every new country where the soil is particu- 
larly fertile there are forests and rank growth of verdure, and 
always in such regions, there are, at first, fevers and torment- 
ing insects and miasmatic poisons. But man ultimately con- 
quers all these things, for man by a decree of Nature has 
been made "lord of the soil," and in the centuries to come he 
will tame and civilize this region. That is evolution — that, I 
believe, is destiny. 

And now I have to say good-by to Brazil. After traveling 
through a country so great as this, it is difficult to sum up 
one's impressions. To my mind the immensity of its area and 
the lavish way in which Nature has endowed Brazil, stand 
out distinctly. In these two items it justifies the title — mag- 
nificent. As for the achievements of its people, I found much 
to praise. They have some of the most beautiful cities yet 
built by man. The architecture of any country indicates the 
mental character of the people, and clearly a. large class of 
Brazilians have good taste. I owe them thanks for my enjoy- 
ment of the beauty of their homes and cities, and I am grate- 
ful to them for many generous courtesies and helpful favors. 
I was a "stranger within their gates," and they treated me 
well. I thank them for it, and prophesy for their nation a 
great future. 



THE THREE GUIANAS 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



THREE UNIQUE COLONIES. 

ALL the territory of South America is under self-govern- 
ment, save a relatively small strip on the northeastern 
coast, which is held under colonial rule by Great Britain, Hol- 
land and France. The ten republics (eleven, if the Republic 
of Panama be included) are the larger, stronger countries and, 
naturally call for greater -s^ ^^ ^ 

space in a study of the con- 
tinent. Nearly one-half of 
North America is under the 
dominion of a European king,' 
while South America is al- 
most wholly republican in 
government. This can be said 
of no other continent. 

The territory known as the 
three Guianas drew its name 
from an old Indian tribe, and 
originally embraced what is 
now a part of Venezuela and 
Brazil. It was, in a sense, an 
immense island, bounded by 
the Amazon, Rio Negro, 
Cassiquiare and Orinoco 
Rivers and the Atlantic 
Ocean. This original tract of 
country was in size nearly 
equal to one-third of the Uni- 
ted States. It was one of the 
very first portions of the 
Western Hemisphere discov- 
ered by white men. Colum- 
bus, only seven years after his 
first historic voyage, sighted f ,U. 

HINDOO GIRL, BRITISH GUIANA. 




547 



548 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



the coast of Guiana. It is not recorded that he went ashore. 
In this he seems to have been wise, as hundreds of later 
adventurers lost their lives in attempting exploration of the 
hot, unhealthy coast and jungle-filled valleys of this vast 
region. Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1595, attempted to lead an 
expedition into the interior, thinking the new El Dorado pos- 
sibly was there. But he changed his mind ; malaria and super- 
heated atmosphere and tangled jungles seemed hardly favor- 
able to the discovery of a blessed El Dorado. 

The first real settlers in the region were the Dutch, who in 

1 58 1 founded a colony on 
that portion of the coast 
which is now British Gui- 
ana. Oddly enough, the 
Dutch first occupied British 
Guiana and the British first 
settled what is now Dutch 
Guiana. They got "swapped 
about" by the Dutch being 
driven out by the Spaniards 
in 1596, while, two hundred 
years later, the British 
drove out the Spaniards, 
and the Dutch got a foot- 
ing on another portion of 
the coast. 

The average American 
confuses the word "Gui- 
ana" with "Guinea," and is 
about as much in the dark 
regarding the Guianas, three European possessions in South 
America, as he is relative to Guinea, the African land. The 
early writers made the same mistake, and the little rodent, 
native of Guiana, was dubbed "the Guinea pig." 

The colonies — British, Dutch and French Guiana — have 
been intimately associated, in history and commerce, with the 
West Indian Islands rather than with the continent. To reach 
them, the traveler usually goes to Trinidad, British West 
Indies, and transships to Demerara, as British Guiana is popu- 




IN A CANE-FIELD, BRITISH 
GUIANA. 



THE THREE GUI AN AS 549 

larly called. The Guianas lie on the forehead of South Amer- 
ica between Venezuela and Brazil. They had a fair start with 
the other countries of the Western Hemisphere, but they have 
not won a creditable position in the commercial race. In this, 
even some of the Central American republics are ahead of 
them. 

Many people believe that the three European powers con- 
trolling these colonies have given them little attention because 
of the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. British Guiana, to be 
sure, has been forced to "hustle for herself" since her youth; 
but this is Great Britain's policy with all her offspring. Dutch 
Guiana, on the other hand, has never been self-supporting, and 
receives assistance from the Netherlands. Poor French Guiana 
is forever in disgrace — the penal colony of the motherland. 
The colonies have suffered greatly from raids of privateers, 
slave revolts, capture by enemy, endemic diseases and insect 
pests. But in spite of all this, the foreign trade of the three 
countries reached $28,000,000 in 191 1. 

In British and Dutch Guiana every acre under cultivation 
has had to struggle with the sea — a narrow strip along the 
coast rescued from mango swamps by an elaborate system of 
dams and dikes. The more habitable highlands are not yet 
settled, being covered by the primeval forest. In French 
Guiana, the coast swamps are replaced by verdant hills which 
meet the sea. Least loved by its European mother, it is by far 
the loveliest of the three Guianas. 

BRITISH GUIANA. 

Area, 90,500 square miles — Population, 270,000, including 125,- 
000 Hindoos and many negroes — Natural products, sugar, 
rice, diamonds, rubber, rum, molascuit {cattle food) — 
Total exports in ion, $8,000,000 — Imports from the 
United States about $3,500,000 annually — Capital, George- 
town, population, 55,000. 

In the old days "when Sugar was King," British Guiana 
had great hopes for the future, but the country received a hard 
jolt when Great Britain abolished the preferential bounty to her 
colonies. Still, sugar and its by-products — rum, molasses and 




A BRITISH GUIANA HINDOO WOMAN, IMPORTED FROM EAST INDIA. 



THE THREE GUI AN AS 



o^ 



molascuit (cattle food) — continue to lead, representing seventy- 
five per cent of the exports of $8,000,000 in 191 1. Rice is now 
cultivated successfully, and 250,000 bags were exported during 
the season of 191 1. The agricultural outlook for the season 
of 1912 was not bright, for the worst drought in forty years 
was scorching the whole northern section of South America at 
the time I was there. 

British Guiana has a population of 270,000. The local in- 
crease has fallen off 10,000 in the last ten years, but the popula- 
tion nevertheless grows with the importation of "coolies" from 
India. There are now 125,000 of these Hindoos in the colony. 
They are indentured — the men for five, the women for three 
years — to labor on the sugar estates and in the rice fields, re- 
ceiving twenty-four cents a day and furnishing their own food. 
When their term of indenture is past, the most of these East 
Indians remain in the country. They have lost caste in cross- 
ing the ocean, and know that they will not be well received in 
their home land. Instead, they remain in the New World as 
free men, cultivating their own land and even becoming em- 
ployers of indentured labor themselves. 

These Hindoos furnish the planter with cheap and reliable 
labor. The negroes are given to "strikes." On several oc- 




CANAL IN STREET IN GEORGETOWN, BRITISH GUIANA, FILLED 
WITH VICTORIA REGTA LILIES. 



55 2 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



casions they have caused the riot act to be read, and in 1905 it 
required the marines of two British warships to subdue the 
striking longshoremen, who demanded a raise from sixty cents 
a day. Hindoo children, born in the colony, are unhampered 
by caste, the curse of India, and are intelligent and adaptable. 
Schools are maintained by the Government on the sugar estates. 
Georgetown, the capital of the colony, lies at the mouth of 
the Demerara River. It was originally settled by the Dutch, 
and is below sea level, protected by a dike built and maintained, 
on shares, by the planters near the sea and the Government. 
Sea level is reached nine miles inland. The leading streets 
have wide trenches, bordered by trees and grass plots, and filled 
with gigantic Victoria Regia lilies. These magnificent night- 
bloomers, native to the Guianas, were discovered in 1835 and 
named in honor of Queen Victoria. It seems rather a pity, but 

the lilies and 
trenches are 
doomed. George- 
town has voted 
$100,000 for sani- 
tation, and work 
begins with the 
filling in of all 
ditches to elimi- 
nate the breeding 
grounds of mos- 
quitoes. 

The c a p i t al, 
with 4,700 vessels 
clearing yearly, is 
a busy port. It is 
favored by cool 
trade winds from 
the Atlantic, and 
the houses are 
built, in part, of 
Venetian blin d s 
called "Demerara 
shutters," which 




A TYPICAL HOME, GEORGETOWN, BRITISH GUIANA. 



THE THREE GUI AN AS 



553 




A NATIVE SON, BRITISH GUIANA. 



invite the breeze but debar the sunlight. This style of arch- 
itecture has spread over the Caribbean countries. 

British Guiana had the fifth railway in the world, and it still 
has it, with a few short additions. Berbice, also on the coast, is 
the second city of importance. The rivers are the great high- 
ways, and navigation is being extended far up to the great 
forests of "greenheart," a valuable hardwood used in dock con- 
struction. The gold mines and diamond fields are reached 
by canoe from the head of steam navigation. It requires twen- 
ty days to journey to them, a great handicap to their develop- 
ment. Railways are now being projected to this little known 
region. 

In the diamond fields, no true "pipe" has yet been discov- 
ered. The diamonds are small, the 26,000 stones exported last 
year weighing only 3,000 carats. The forest abounds in bullet 
trees, from which balata (rubber milk) is obtained, and innu- 



554 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

merable other woods of value to commerce when transportation 
is made easier. 

Far back in the heart of the highland forest are the Kaieteur 
Falls, numbered among the four great waterfalls of the world. 
Rest houses have recently been built along the river route lead- 
ing to this wonderland, and travelers can reach Kaieteur with- 
out great discomfort. The river, nearly 400 feet in width, 
flows quietly to the brink of a precipice, and falls 741 feet, 
about five times the height of Niagara. With the tropical forest 
as a setting, the scene is a marvelous one, and in time this spot 
will become a mecca for Nature lovers. 

To go back to the coast and to the colony's commerce, our 
trade with British Guiana amounts to twenty per cent of the 
total $17,000,000. We send the sugar planters bone phosphate 
for cane fertilization, also kerosene, flour, lumber, canned 
meats, machinery and patent medicines. A tribute has been 
paid to our system of currency, for while the British pound, 
shilling and pence are in use, all prices are quoted in dollars 
and cents, and accounts are kept in United States currency 
figures for the sake of convenience. All the British colonies in 
this quarter of the world (with the exception of Jamaica) are 
arranging for special trade treaties with Canada, but sugar 
admitted free of duty into the United States will spoil all their 
plans. 

DUTCH GUIANA. 

Area, 46,000 square miles — Population, 70,000, of ivhich only 
about 4,000 are whites — Natural products, cacao, sugar, 
bananas, gold, valuable woods — Resources but little de- 
veloped, commerce small in volume — Total exports, $3,- 
000,000 in 1011 — Capital, Paramaribo, population, 40,000. 

When it conies to real hard luck among the colonies, 
"the Dutch have it." The settlers in Dutch Guiana reclaimed 
the sea, cleared away the mangroves, and extended their work 
up into the forests. They planted cacao, reaping bountiful 
crops, and a blight came along affecting about every tree in the 
country. The sugar-cane developed a disease all its own. The 
discouraged planters, hearing that every man, woman and 



556 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



child in the United States, after eating three dozen bananas 
each per year, called for more, took heart. They asked Mother 
Holland to give them a million dollars to start them in the 
"Banana Game." She consented, and the United Fruit Com- 
pany agreed to purchase the product. Four new steamers were 
put in service by the Dutch line to rush the cargo to hungry 
New York. The tide of luck seemed to have turned for the 
colonists. The first banana crop was a huge success. Then, 
like a flash, the banana plants developed an incurable illness. 
"Mother Holland refusing another loan to her affected colony" 
is the last touching tableau. 

There is still a little commerce, however. The exports 
amounted to $3,000,000 in 191 1 — sugar, gold, a little cacao — 
with symptoms of general improvement. A large forest con- 
cession has recently been granted, to be worked for wood pulp 
for American paper manufacturers. There is one railroad in 
the country which extends sixty miles into the forest. The 
Dutch steamers, which conduct a fortnightly service between 
Amsterdam and New York, touch at Dutch Guiana, bringing 
cheese and gin and other "necessaries" to the colonists. There 




MARKET SCENE IN PARAMARIBO, DUTCH GUIANA. 




o 

M ^1" 



60- 

m 

H 
O 



558 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




BLACK CREOLE WOMEN, DUTCH GUIANA. 



are not many passengers on the return voyage, as the few- 
thousand Dutch people in the colony have little money to spend. 

Of the 70,000 inhabitants, 40,000 live in Paramaribo, the 
capital. There are only 4,000 whites, the negroes, descendants 
of the slaves, forming the greater portion of the population. 
There are East Indians, as in British Guiana, as Great Britain 
formerly permitted the Dutch Guiana Government to bring out 
indentured Hindoos from India. This permission has been 
revoked, and now the planters depend on free coolie labor and 
on Javanese brought from the Netherlands' East Indian pos- 
sessions. 

Paramaribo is on a bank of the Surinam River, about four- 
teen miles from the sea. Surinam is also the Dutch name for 
the colony. Paramaribo is interesting to us as "the city which 
was exchanged for New York" when the British took New 
Amsterdam, the present site of Manhattan, and the Dutch got 
Surinam, which was formerly British. This was back in the 
seventeenth century. Paramaribo is a very picturesque old 
town, with peaked-roofed houses and shaded streets. One ave- 



THE THREE GUI AN AS 



559 



nue is lined with magnificent mahogany trees worth $40,000. 
At least, an American lumber firm offered that price for the 
timber, but there is little danger of the great trees being de- 
stroyed, as the natives are enormously proud of them. 

The black Creole women are exceedingly picturesque. They 
wear a costume called the kotto-mcssi — a very wide skirt looped 
over a cord at the hips, a full, short blouse and a kerchief tied 
to produce a broad effect. In the market place, sitting on the 
ground before their wares, they resemble huge mushrooms. 
They speak a language called Taki-Taki, a weird mixture of 




DR. BRADLEY, UNITED STATES CONSUL IN SURINAM, DUTCH 
GUIANA, AT HIS MINE IN THE "BUSH." 



many tongues. The language of Holland is known only to the 
small educated class. 

There are a number of Jews in the colony whose ancestors 
fled to Holland when expelled from Spain in the fifteenth cen- 
tury. Of all the strange people to be found here, the Bosch 
(Bush) negroes are the most interesting to the traveler. They 
live in the forest, but a few are occasionally seen in town. Many 
years ago the planters sent their African slaves into the woods 
to escape payment when the tax collector made his rounds. The 
blacks escaped into the wilderness and never returned to the 



560 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



plantations. They live just about as their cousins do in the 
wilds of Africa and are worshipers of Obeah. The Indians of 
the forest are not fierce savages, being mostly of the Arawak 
tribe, long allies of the colonists, but they are shy and keep 
away from civilization, preferring their primeval solitude. On 
a bank of the Surinam River, not far from Paramaribo, is a 
Moravian mission home for lepers. It was formerly supported 
altogether by the order in America, but now receives help from 
the Dutch Guiana Government. 



FRENCH GUIANA. 

A French penal colony — Area, 34,000 square miles — Popula- 
tion, about 30,000, of zvhich 8,000 are prisoners — Natural 
resources, numerous tropical products, but little developed 
— Total exports in 10 1 1, $2,300,000 — Capital, Cayenne, 
population, 12,000, mostly black. 

We have all heard of cayenne pepper. Well, it does not 
come from Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana. But the 
colony did start the little red condiment on its mad career 
around the globe. Some thirty other varieties of pepper are 




VIEW IN HARBOR, CAYENNE, FRENCH GUIANA. 



THE THREE GUI AN AS 



56i 



indigenous to the 
country, which may 
have influenced the 
French Govern- 
ment to select this 
hot place as a dom- 
icile for its con- 
victs. There are 
eight thousand 
prisoners there 
now ! Twice a year 
the convict ship 
comes in from 
France with its car- 
go of wretches in 
steel cages. The 
death rate in the 
colony is terrific, so 
that two thousand 
yearly additions 
about fill the va- 
cancies. 

Prisoners receiv- 
ing over a five-year 
sentence are re- 
quired to serve an 
additional term of 
the same period as 
settlers in the col- 
ony. Alth o u g h 
the mouths of the 
rivers are guarded 
and the forest is 
very nearly impas- 
sable, many prison- 
ers, paroled on this 
second term, man- 
age to escape, mak- 
ing their perilous 




38 



CONVICTS ON THE WAY TO WORK, NEAR 
CAYENNE, FRENCH GUIANA. 



562 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




NATIVE HUMAN TYPES OF FRENCH GUIANA. 



way to Dutch and even to British Guiana. In Paramaribo 
there are agents of a society formed in France, whose members 
are friends of the convicts, and through this agency the refugees 
are provided with money and clothes to further their efforts to 
escape. 

Not far from the city of Cayenne is Devil's Island, where 
Dreyfus, the famous Frenchman, was confined for a long 
period behind a barricade. The island bears an unusually good 
reputation for healthfulness, the local name being "Island of 
Health." Formerly the French Government sent many pris- 
oners to New Caledonia, but the convicts lived so long there 
that the place was abandoned. There is no danger about 
Cayenne. It holds the record as a death-trap ! This, however, 
is due in great part to the treatment accorded the prisoners. 
Forced to labor in the fierce tropical sun on scant rations, they 
quickly succumb. The convicts have built some thirty miles of 



THE THREE GUI AN AS 



563 



roads in the country, but there is practically no agriculture nor 
cattle raising. 

The colonial appointments are political, and there is much 
criticism regarding the method of government. With timber 
and cabinet woods that compare favorably with those in other 
tropical lands, there has been practically no attempt to develop 
the forest resources. There is not a mile of railroad in the 
country. The French Guiana forest has a unique product — oil 
of rosewood — which is extracted and exported. Seven fac- 
tories for distilling the oil are now in operation, and in 191 1 
over $100,000 worth of oil was sent to France to be used as a 
substitute for attar or "otto" of roses. It brings $1.75 per 
pound. The forest streams are also rich in gold, the principal 
export, amounting to $2,000,000 of the total export of $2,300,- 
000. This gold is secured by the hand labor of negroes. As 
there is an export tax on gold dust, many goldsmiths are em- 
ployed in the mining sections working the gold dust into crude 
jewelry. The home-coming miners are fairly ablaze with orna- 
ments, and avoid the tax. 




INDIANS FROM THE WILDS OF FRENCH GUIANA 



564 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




MARKET WOMEN OF CAYENNE, FRENCH GUIANA. 



The gold streams are reached only by canoe, a long journey 
with many portages, and this lack of transportation greatly 
hinders the growth of the industry. It costs $150 to convey a 
ton of provisions to the mines. An island off the coast con- 
tains phosphate rock, $50,000 worth being shipped to America 
in 1911. 

Cayenne, the capital, is situated on an island very near the 
coast. It has a population of 12,000, mostly blacks. There are 
a few whites, French colonial officers and their families — a 
homesick lot of exiles, longing for the lights of "gay Paree."' 
Once a month a steamer comes in from France. The remainder 
of the time the isolated ones depend on the cable for home 
news, and count the days before their return to civilization. 
But the convicts ? Alas, they seldom return. 



VENEZUELA 

Area, 393,870 square miles, or over jive times the area of the 
great State of Illinois — Population, in ion, 2,713,703, 
about fifteen per cent Indian, estimated — Chief natural 
resources, coffee, cattle, valuable woods, rubber, chemicals, 
cacao, gold, asphalt, iron, silver, copper, diamonds, pearls, 
petroleum, fruits — Exports, ion, $23,000,000, imports, 
$17,000,000 — Exports in ion to United States, $7,635,- 
256; imports from United States, $5,200,000— Army, peace 
footing, 9,000, war footing, 60,000 — Navy, 6 ships, 300 
officers and men — Capital, Caracas, population, 75,000. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



AN INTERESTING COUNTRY. 

OF ALL the republics in South America, Uncle Sam has 
had the greatest opportunity for demonstrating his 
friendship toward his nearest neighbor, Venezuela. 

Two monuments stand today in Puerto Cabello and Mar- 
acay to the memory of American volunteers who gave their 
lives to help free Venezuela from the Spanish 
yoke. Uncle Sam was the first to recognize 
her as an independent nation. When the 
earthquake of 1812 killed 30,000 people and 
laid her capital in ruins, he took $100,000 from 
his strong-box and rushed to her succor. He 
offered a refuge to her great hero, General 
Paez, when banished by political enemies, 
nursed him through a long illness, and, at his 
death, returned the remains, with official es- 
cort, to his grateful countrymen. 

But the proof of more than friendship came 
in our times, 1895, when Tio 
Sam (Uncle Sam), at the risk of 
an appalling war, halted Great 
Britain and forced her to restore 
to the Venezuelan map the cov- 
eted Orinoco territory. 



r"- 




1 



STATUE IN MARACAY, VENEZUELA, TO 

AMERICANS WHO FOUGHT TO FREE 

VENEZUELA. 



S65 



5 66 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



This readiness to extend the helping hand across the Carib- 
bean Sea has, at times, caused his motives to be impugned in 
some quarters. Venezuela, however, has royally embraced 
the opportunity of entertaining Secretary of State Knox, the 
first call from a member of Uncle Sam's official family, thus 
demonstrating her appreciation of his long list of favors. 

Venezuela appeared on the map at an early date in New- 
World history. Columbus, rounding the Islands of Trinidad 
on his third voyage in 1498, sighted the mainland. One of his 
officers went ashore and planted the flag of Spain. A few 
years ago the Venezuelan Government erected a monument at 
this point, naming the territory "Cristobal Colon." 

The year following the discovery by Columbus, the Spanish 
sailor Ojeda, accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian 
pickle dealer whose name through accident designates the lands 
of the New World, skirted the whole coast of the country. On 
entering the great Gulf of Maracaibo he noted an Indian village 
built on piles on its half-submerged shores, the natives using 
canoes for communication between huts. A powerful imagina- 
tion, inherent in the Spanish race, caused Ojeda to fancy a re- 




ERECTING ARCH IN HONOR OF VISIT OF UNITED STATES 
SECRETARY OF STATE KNOX, CARACAS, VENEZUELA. 






VENEZUELA 



56/ 




THE CATHEDRAL TOWER, CARACAS, VENE- 
ZUELA, ILLUMINATED IN HONOR 
OF SECRETARY OF STATE KNOX. 



semblance to Venice, hence 
''Venezuela" or "Little 
Venice." Thus an inappro- 
priate name has clung to a 
mountainous region larger 
than the combined area of 
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, Alabama, 
Mississippi and Louisiana. 
Venezuela, with her 390,- 
000 square miles, stands 
sixth, or just halfway, in 
point of size, among the 
eleven republics on the 
Southern continent. Few 
lands are more favored by 
nature. The resources are 
enormous and as yet hardly 
touched. The concern of 
the United States is a close 
one and must become still closer with the completion of the 
canal. 

While recipient of so many official favors from our Gov- 
ernment, Venezuela has received but little attention from the 
individual American. Today there are less than half a dozen 
men, born under the Stars and Stripes, who are permanent 
residents of the country. Germany and Italy transplanted 
many sons to the Caribbean shores a generation ago, and their 
children are now the thriving merchants of the republic. 

In the past the American manufacturer has depended on 
"buying demand" rather than on "selling effort" in placing his 
wares, but of late he is making a belated, though fairly success- 
ful, endeavor to secure the trade which is his by right of geo- 
graphical location. 

We will soon need the products from Venezuela's fertile 
lands to eke out our larder. As the man from the West re- 
marked, "We're willin' to go ragged, but we must eat !" Since 
all commerce is a matter of exchange, it is well that American 



568 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

manufacturers are delivering some monkey-wrenches and type- 
writers along with our orders for beef and coffee. 

The Venezuelan Government has recently collated its trade 
figures for 191 1 and is jubilant over the showing. The total 
trade advance over the previous year was $10,000,000, an in- 
crease of over twenty-five per cent — startling figures ! 

While Uncle Sam sold goods valued at over $5,000,000, an 
increase of $1,500,000, Great Britain's sales advanced over 
$2,000,000, topping our figure by $200,000. Germany, though 
third, with $3,500,0000, had an increase of $1,250,000. Vene- 
zuela's exported products were valued at $23,000,000, imports 
$17,000,000, a most satisfactory balance of trade in her favor. 
This argues well for the country's commercial future. 

"La Guayra?" said the American Canal Zone doctor, when 
I asked about Venezuela's front door. "It's a fever hole. We 
quarantine against it !'" 

"La Guayra!" says the native of the country, "Bonita! 
Preciosa!" but complimentary adjectives fail him. He kisses 
his hand to it. 

I have found no South American port more picturesque. 
Here the mist-crowned Andes bathe their feet in the sea. Like 
nimble Alpine goats, the little pink and blue houses of the old 
town climb the hills and overhang the cliffs. Viewed from the 
Caribbean, the few level streets by the shore are scarcely visible. 

"How on earth do we reach Caracas ?" asked the man next 
to me as we came into port. I pointed to a trail straight up to 
the summit of the mountain. 

"That must be the old Indian path," I said, "for Caracas 
lies just over that wall. But the captain says we zigzag up, 
now, the long way round by rail." 

In days gone by La Guayra's harbor was an open roadstead 
and a terror to seamen. Now a massive breakwater protects 
the safe little port where ships dock. 

In 1885 a British company had the foresight to secure the 
exclusive concession for dock privileges, and now all shipping 
must pay it tribute. True, the company spent $5,000,000 in 
dredging the harbor, constructing the breakwater, and building 
the railroad which brings passengers and freight from ship to 
custom house, but the returns have justified the outlay. Each 



VENEZUELA 



569 



passenger is taxed forty cents for a two-hundred-yard ride, 
while his baggage is assessed on the kilo basis. 

The railroad employes deposit the baggage within the 
custom house, but are not permitted to bring it out to the plat- 
form where it can be received by the cartmen after inspection. 
A special mob of porters has the exclusive privilege of moving 
luggage this fifty feet, relieving the protesting passenger of all 
that is left of his loose change. 

The custom examination is no perfunctory one, for Vene- 




VIEW OF THE DOCKS AND HARBOR, LA GUAYRA, VENEZUELA. 



zuela derives a large proportion of her revenue from import 
duties and the collecting of this tax has become one of her most 
trying problems. Fate has destined this situation to be irritat- 
ing, for the country's long shore line is fringed with coves at- 
tractive to the smuggler, while just off the coast are several 
islands under European rule, enjoying practically the privilege 
of free ports. 

In Willemstad, on the Dutch island of Curacao, and in Port 



5;o ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

of Spain, on the British island of Trinidad, there is a strong- 
incentive to slip goods over Neighbor Venezuela's high tariff 
wall, as is attested by numerous sailing craft to be seen in these 
ports — stormy petrels which go to sea in heavy fog and high 
gale, propitious weather for an unobtrusive landing. Venezuela 
has lately built the first of her coast patrol vessels and hopes 
to make it interesting for smugglers in the future. 

La Guayra is a busy port with an average of thirty steamers 
a month flying the flags of seven nations. Over one of these 
lines — the "Red D." — floats the Stars and Stripes, a rare sight 
in foreign waters. This company maintains a weekly service 
between the United States and Venezuela. The only other 
steamers connecting the two countries are those of the Dutch 
West Indian line via Haiti. All the other lines — British, 
French, Spanish, Italian and German — lace Venezuela to 
Europe. 

In spite of its unenviable reputation regarding health condi- 
tions, La Guayra is now attracting American tourists by the 
shipload. While I was there the White Star liner, Lurentic, 
brought in four hundred sightseers, who were rushed up over 
the mountains by special train for a peep at the capital. The 
very next day the Hamburg-American liner, Molke, landed 
another lot of three hundred and fifty. Before the week was 
out, a second Hamburg-American ship arrived with four 
hundred. 

As there were two cases of yellow fever in the port the 
arrival of so many tourists testifies that the average American 
will "take a chance ;" also to the drawing power of Venezuela's 
attractions. She is probably the best advertised of all the 
South American republics. 

And yellow fever is not the most dreaded scourge of her 
ports, either ! Far from it ! Not long ago bubonic plague held 
all this coast in its deadly grip, terrifying the medical world and 
earning the protest of the United States Marine Hospital 
Service. 

"Venezuela must be cleaned up !" our doctors announced. 
"Otherwise drastic action will be taken!" The threat brought 
results, and today bubonic has disappeared, although sanitary 
conditions do not justify the belief that it is gone forever. 



VENEZUELA 



0/ 



"Why do we go to Curacao next ? Why not to Porto Rico 
— it's just across on the map ?" asked a fair excursionist. Well, 
why don't you go if you want to? Simply because Uncle Sam 
won't let you. 

After browsing about for hours in musty curio shops, he 
considers you a fit subject for four days' disinfection in quar- 
antine at Ponce, before allowing you to associate with his thor- 
oughly renovated adopted children in Porto Rico. 

You will not embarrass any of the 5,000 portenos (gate- 
keepers), as the inhabitants 
of La Guayra are dubbed 
by the people of the inte- 
rior, if you inquire the use 
of the long white building 
which gleams among the 
cocoanut palms on the cape 
near the harbor. I tried it. 

"That, senor?" rather 
proudly came the reply, 
"that is our new hospital 
for lepers." 

"Are there many lepers 
here?" I asked, trying to 
conceal my horror. 

"Si, senor, bastante." 
(Yes, sir, enough.) 

Heaven knows there are 
quite enough! Just why 
the Caribbean shores 
should exhibit so many of 

these wretched sufferers, beyond the pale of medical science, 
is still a moot point. Some have advanced the theory that the 
fish diet (fish which is sun-dried, where decomposition sets in 
before curing) is responsible for the disease, but "quicn sabc!" 
(who knows!) as they say down here. Some action toward 
segregation has been taken, but progress seems slow in com- 
bating this most dreaded scourge of the Lands of the Sunlit 
Seas. 

Tt is marvelous the change in climate you sometimes meet 




TYPICAL WINDOW IN A VENEZUE- 
LAN HOUSE. 



572 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




JUST IN FROM THE COUNTRY. 



within a short distance. 
The suburb of Maiquetia, 
just out of La Guayra, is 
said to be several degrees 
cooler than the port. The 
many merchants who make 
it their home claim it is not 
only cooler, but more 
healthful. I found it de- 
cidedly warm. It is con- 
nected with La Guayra by 
a steam road which also 
runs three miles, in the 
other direction, out to Ma- 
cuto, the favorite seaside 
resort. I decided to go out 
and look it over. The trip 
took about fifteen minutes, 
for which I was taxed 
twenty cents. The road 
skirts the shore and I saw 
a species of pelican called 
They fly at an altitude of 



great numbers of fishing birds, 

alcatras in Spanish countries. 

twelve or fifteen feet, then suddenly dive, landing their fish 

about every shot. 

I noted a change of climate the moment we puffed out of 
La Guayra, and when I reached Macuto and was located in a 
front room of the leading hotel, with the salt breezes rolling in 
'way from Santo Domingo, I decided I would stay a week. 

It was "out of season," still the hotel was fairly well filled. 
Some haciendaros, or ranchers, were there with their wives and 
daughters, probably avoiding the fashionable season by prefer- 
ence. 

The real season, December, January, February, brings the 
"society folks" from Caracas to this, their favorite resort. 
They spend their time driving, riding, bathing, and playing the 
omnipresent game of Spanish dominoes under the broad almond 
trees which shade the shore. They may also "take a chance" 
at roulette, for I stumbled on a dusty outfit in a back hall. 



VENEZUELA 



o/o 



Bathing here is not conducted on the "American plan." 
Not at all ! Here, as in other parts of Latin America, salt 
water bathing is indulged in for the tonic effect only, a sort of 
doctor's prescription. The bath house at the end of a little 
pier has two separate enclosures surrounded by piling, one for 
men, the other for women. There is no mixed bathing as with 
us. All morning long the ladies passed my hotel, wearing 
simple attire and broad-brimmed hats, trailed by maids carry- 
ing towels and toilet articles. The men made the pilgrimage 
with their towels, scarf-like, around their necks. No frolick- 
ing on the beach as in the U. S. A. No parade before the gaze 
of the populace ! No, not in bathing costume ! But there is a 
parade, quite a one, in the late afternoon and evening, on the 
broad cement walk, flanked by the hotel piazzas and the rolling 
surf. Here the latest Paris fashions are exhibited during the 
season, a military band is in attendance, and the resort takes 
on real social prominence. 

I "hired" a carriage for eighty cents an hour and drove 
about the town. The many beautiful homes — really elaborate 
ones — surprised me. Each has its name, as at our resorts. 
"Mira Mar" (Sea View), 
is in evidence. This charm- 
ingly situated little town 
has about 1,000 inhabitants 
and supports three hotels. 

I was astounded when I 
deciphered my hotel rate. 
Having been rather heavily 
taxed for luggage at La 
Guayra, and having paid 
twenty cents for a three- 
mile car ride, I was pre- 
pared for a stiff hotel bill. 
The rate for room and fare 
is eight bolivars a day. This 
sounds high, but when 
figured out, with a bolivar 
worth twenty cents — $1.60 
for a front room, three 




THE BREAD MULE, OR TRAVELING BAKERY, 
A COMMON SIGHT IN VENEZUELA. 



574 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH- AMERICA 



meals and view of the sea and mountains thrown in ! I looked 
up the proprietor to see if there was not a mistake. No, there 
wasn't, and he frankly admitted that he was making money, 
and pointed to the annex he is building across the street. I am 
puzzled, for on the menu imported articles were listed; but 
much, of course, is home production. 

Six varieties of fish were caught in sight of our dining- 
room, the broad veranda of the second story ; the game we had 
was shot in the mountains just back of the town; meat, vege- 
tables, coffee, fruit were from the country. Bread is made 
from wheat imported from the States, rice from South Caro- 
lina ; cheese from Holland. There were delicious ices made 
from tropical fruits, that from fresh cocoanuts being especially 
fine, and all for $1.60! The high tide of hotel rates has not 
yet reached Venezuela ! 

I left La Guayra at eight-thirty in the morning and reached 
the capital in two and a half hours. It is only seven miles as 
the crow flies, but twenty-three by rail. For years Caracas 
was reached only by a steep mule-trail and a roundabout cart- 
road, but in 1883 the La Guayra-Caracas Railroad, originally 
an American enterprise, was completed by British capital at a 




A MOUNTAIN STATION ON THE LA GUAYRA AND CARACAS 
RAILROAD, VENEZUELA. 






VENEZUELA 



o/o 



cost of nearly $100,000 per mile. It is a remarkable road, 
with an average grade of over four per cent and scarcely 
twenty yards of straight track on the entire line. The rails 
cling to the perpendicular surface of the mountain like vines to 
a stone wall. By this tortuous path the train crawls along the 
edge of precipices, reaching a height of 3,000 feet before losing 
sight of the sea. The view of La Guayra and the Caribbean 
far below, of bottomless chasm and noble mountain, is beyond 
all word pictures, and is alone worth the voyage to South 
America. 

Caracas, the capital, is an old town. It was founded by the 
Spaniards in 1567 on the site of an Indian village. No city in 
the New World has a more beautiful situation. It lies 3,000 
feet above the sea in a narrow, ever-verdant valley, Availed in 
by towering, treeless mountains. Its climate is unrivaled — a 
place of perpetual spring. An American who has lived here 
for ten years told me that cold and heat are alike unknown. 
The city has had an eventful history. Since 1797, when the 
first movement for independence was initiated, it has been the 
scene of many an uprising and revolution. In 181 1 the formal 
Decl a r a t i o n of Independence was 

proclaimed and in s^~~~\*\ 1819, freed by Simon 

Bolivar, the great / {*) N. South American Lib- 

erator, the country / \ became a part of 

"Great Colombia." / \ In 1830 it declared it- 

self an independent / «&- \ republic. 

While nominally / -^ggjifa \ a republic, pattern 

ing its government 
ezuela is in reality 
even the Governors 




after our own, Ven- 
an autocracy, where 



of the thirteen States 




STATUE ERKCTED IN CARACAS IN TQTI TO COMMEMORATE THE 
CENTENNIAL OF THE DECLARATION OF VENEZUELAN- 
INDEPENDENCE. 



576 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



are appointed by the President. Strange as it may seem, no 
President has ever actually come into power through an elec- 
tion, and no President has ever retired from office except 
through a revolution. There is, however, a National Congress 
consisting of a Senate and House of Deputies, the former 
elected by- the State Legislatures, the latter by direct vote of 
the people. 

Since becoming a republic, Venezuela has produced more 
"trouble" than any other nation, both for "home and foreign 




ARCH OF LIBERTY AND FEDERATION, CARACAS, VENEZUELA. 



consumption." The brand designed for domestic use is labeled 
"Revolution;" that for the outer world, "International Com- 
plication." If you will look up the word "revolution" in your 
dictionary — you will find that it means "a going around." There 
are always enough revolutions to go around in this country. It 
has a record of over one hundred. There is a popular supeisti- 
tion that all South American revolutions are inspired \>y men 
claiming, in broken accents, that the United States is their 



VENEZUELA 



577 




VENEZUELAN SOLDIERS. 



fatherland — men who de- 
sire to sell nonexplosive 
cartridges and rifles which 
antedate the invention of 
gunpowder at exorbitant 
prices. This is a mistake.. 
The revolutionary spirit is 
indigenous here. 

While the constitution of 
Venezuela limits the presi- 
dential term to six years. 
Guzman Blanco managed to 
hold his grip on the affairs 
of the nation for nineteen. 
His rule was the heyday for 
the speculative adventurer 
who came to the country to see what he could devour. To 
such, Guzman Blanco mortgaged the resources of the republic 
to provide the cities with plazas ornamented with statues of 
himself labeled : "The Illustrious American." After his 
dethronement the populace pulled down all these statues, an 
act which inspired the suggestion from a visiting Yankee that, 
in the interest of economy, all statues of future military Presi- 
dents of Venezuela should be erected in full uniform but with 
movable heads, to be changed with each administration. 

If Guzman Blanco received some attention from the foreign 
press, it remained for Cipriano Castro to inspire miles of space 
in the newspapers of the world. For nine years this indomit- 
able little man held his country under his thumb and the foreign 
powers at bay. Every minute of his long reign was eventful. 
He collected quarrels with other nations as a private individual 
collects stamps or coins. At one time or another he trod on the 
toes of nearly every civilized power. He insulted plenipoten- 
tiaries, canceled concessions and flouted foreign bondholders. 
With modern eight-inch guns mounted on the hills above La 
Guayra, he defied the warships of three nations. 

We cannot deny Cipriano (otherwise "Slippery Elm") 
Castro a unique place in history. He monopolized the spot-light 
on the international stage from the hour he assumed a star role 
37 



578 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

in the cast. His rise was interesting. As a cattleman, of In- 
dian and Spanish blood, in the wild mountainous region of 
Tachira, it was his habit, with other frontiersmen, to drive his 
stock over into Colombia whenever the tax-collector came 
around. A similar courtesy was accorded Colombian ranch- 
men in their hour of need. But the day of reckoning came ! 

The tax-collectors of the two republics united, and sup- 
ported by troops, appeared simultaneously on either side of the 
frontier. Castro's cattle were seized, confiscated, and his ranch 
destroyed. Having no other means of livelihood, he raised the 
standard of revolt. His neighbois flocked around him, and at 
the head of this improvised army he fought his way to the 
presidency. Once in power, he announced himself "The Re- 
storer." He did restore to Venezuelans about all the conces- 
sions granted to foreigners by previous administrations, but 
Castro himself was chief among these beneficiaries. It was not 
on foreigners alone that he preyed No public utility, native or 
otherwise, escaped the "Restoration." By monopoly, forced 
sale and heavy taxation, the President and his favorites ob- 
tained a "rake-off" on every form of industrial enterprise. Salt, 
coal, coffee, cattle, sugar, rum, gold-mining, pearl-fisheries, 
matches, cigarettes, cigars, banks and railroads were all laid 
under tribute. All business had to pay for the privilege of 
being protected. The country was taxed to its last breath. A 
blight was cast on all industry and commerce. 

But the army was not neglected. It received Castro's first 
attention. He found it a rabble of assorted titles with no 
specific duties and a little "shy" on shoes. Before his time it 
was no uncommon sight to see ragged soldiers begging food. 
The story is told of a Venezuelan general of those days, who 
ordered an advance for an attack on a village. Time passed, 
but no company appeared. Finally a scared messenger ar- 
rived. 

"Why have the soldiers not obeyed my orders ?" roared the 
General. 

"They want to, your excellency," stammered the messenger, 
"but there are two drunken Americans down the road and they 
won't let the company pass !" 

Castro worked wonders with the native troops. He estab- 



VENEZUELA 



579 



lished an up-to-date military academy and made the soldiers 
loyal by paying what he promised. It is this strong organiza- 
tion of 9,000 men which blindly supports his successor today. 

In 1908 Castro made his memorable trip to Europe to 
secure surgical aid. The leading men of the country then pre- 
vailed on Acting Executive Gomez to announce that Castro ' 
would not be permitted to return. Cipriano Castro had always 
likened himself to Napoleon, and surely when he attempted to 
return from Europe he received the international attention ac- 
corded only to the "Little Corporal." Napoleon was banished 
to St. Helena Castro, baffled in his attempts to land on British 
or French possessions in the West Indies, was forced into exile 
on the Canaries. But where is he today ? 

This question is being asked in all parts of the world. No 
one seems able to answer. Every new rumor of his where- 
abouts receives headlines in the press The report is current 
that he has managed, through a disguise, to reach the fastness 
of his former mountain home where he hopes again to rally 
the "Andinos" for battle with the Government forces. This 
rumor receives credence in the cafes of Caracas. Will the 
former President win the 
army to his standard of 
revolt? "Quien sabe!" 
(Who knows!) as they 
say down there. 

President Gomez has 
shown wisdom in retain- 
ing powerful military 
chiefs in his Cabinet, 
among them Alcantara, a 
graduate of West Point, 
who was formerly . his 
enemy. Matos, who led 
the unsuccessful revolu- 
tion against Castro, is his 
Minister of Foreign Af- 
fairs. Gomez has already 
smoothed out many tan- 
gles. Venezuela has once 

GENERAL JUAN VINCENTE GOMEZ. 
PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA. 




5 8o 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



more entered the circle of civilized nations from which Castro 
practically excommunicated her. The problems confronting 
the President are tremendous. Politically he was identified 
with the Castro ring and was the beneficiary of one of the 
most popular executive grafts — the cattle monopoly. He is 
untraveled and unread, but has considerable native shrewdness. 
Unquestionably he would not have been the popular choice for 
the presidency through election. What the country needs is 
peace, peace and "a square deal." We are told that "Every- 
thing comes to him who waits." "Here's hoping!" for the 
Venezuelans. 

I stopped at the Hotel Klindt which faces the Plaza Bolivar, 
the main square of the city. An equestrian statue of the be- 
loved Liberator (Bolivar) occupies the center of the plaza. 
There are some twelve or fourteen such attractive little parks 
in the city and in the center of nearly every one of them is a 







H* *«-.• 




STATUE OF SIMON BOLIVAR IN CARACAS/ VENEZUELA. 



VENEZUELA 




costly statue of bronze or 
marble erected in honor of 
some popular hero or states- 
man. 

There is a "Plaza Wash- 
ington" with a statue of 
George Washington, who 
was a friend of the early 
Venezuelan patriots. Even 
the street urchins who play 
in this square know George 
Washington's history, but 
how many schoolboys in the 
States can tell you anything 
of Simon Bolivar? The 
Plaza Bolivar is the very 
heart of Caracas. It is 
paved with mosaic tiles and 
illuminated by festoons of 
electric lights. Here, on sev- 
eral evenings each week, 
there are concerts, the four 
military bands alternating. 
On the benches under its 
shade trees old dames gossip and politicians plot. 

There are a number of fine buildings in the city. The 
Federal capitol, erected in Guzman Blanco's day, is large and 
showy. In its stateroom are portraits of fierce old generals who 
fought in the battles for independence. Painted on the dome of 
this room is an immense panorama of the Battle of Carabobo, 
the decisive victory over the Spaniards. The President's town 
house is called "Mira Flores." Crespo and Castro lived there 
before him. His official residence is the "Casa Amarilla" 
(Yellow House) facing the Plaza Bolivar. 

The Caraquenians are music lovers and the city boasts a 
Grand Opera House, quite modern and pretentious for its pop- 
ulation of 75,000. All classes manage somehow to attend the 
opera. The cochero who drove me about town whistled classic 



STATUE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

CARACAS, VENEZUELA. 

(SIDE VIEW.) 



582 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




airs. There are a Na- 
tional Theater, a Na- 
t i o n a 1 University, nu- 
merous modern Govern- 
ment buildings, many 
handsome churches, and 
a Pantheon, where im- 
mortal heroes lie in state 
— Bolivar's tomb in the 
place of honor, Miranda 
at his right. 

There is a wonderful 
painting in the National 
Museum entitled "Mi- 
randa in Prison." It 
depicts the noble patriot, 
whom our Washington 
loved, in exile in Spain, 
where he died. It is from 
the brush of Arturo 
Michelena, Venezuela's 
great artist, who died at 
the tragically early age 
of thirty. Michelena's 
work has graced that 
artist's "Hall of Fame," 
the Paris Salon. At the 
time of his death, he was 
at work on his master- 
piece, "The Last Sup- 
per," which now hangs, 
in an uncompleted state, 
in the Cathedral. Artists 
from many parts of the 
world have made a pil- 
grimage to this picture. 
Even unfinished, it is 
said to rank with, and 
perhaps surpass, any 




THE MUNICIPAL THEATER, CARACAS. 




THE NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE, CARACAS 




PUBLIC CARRIAGES AND CABBIES, CARACAS. 




A MARKET DAY IN CARACAS. 



VENEZUELA 



585 




STATUE TO HEROES OF THE INDEPENDENCE, 
CARACAS, VENEZUELA. 



other conception of the subject. Michelena was born in Cara- 
cas, and another native of the capital, "Tito" Salao, now gives 
promise of artistic fame. Theresa Carreho, the noted pianist, 
is also a Venezuelan. . 

Because of its great natural beauty, Caracas would seem to 
be the rightful home of artists. There is not an inartistic 
touch in the town. The streets and sidewalks are narrow, in 
Spanish fashion, an electric car, a carriage and four pedestrians 
completely filling the space from wall to wall. The electric 
tramway is owned by British capital. The carriages are vic- 
torias, so popular throughout South America, and the 550 of 



5 86 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



them in the city are of home manufacture. With many cement- 
paved streets, well-laid sidewalks and uniformly-built houses, 
freshly painted, the whole has a decidedly neat appearance. 
The practical American notes, however, that the sewerage sys- 
tem is not all it might be. Plans for sanitation are now under 
way. 

The suburb of Paraiso is modern and most attractive. Here 
coquettish chalets, surrounded by luxurious gardens, line either 
side of wide, well-shaded streets. Here is the fine new Boule- 




■■■:...'■,: ;:-,*■ 



A VENEZUELAN COUNTRY HOUSE, NEAR PARAISO. 



vard Paraiso built recently by President Gomez, where the 
Sunday afternoon corso is a social event. On this drive I met 
several automobiles. There are twenty in town and an auto- 
mobile club is soon to be formed. The President owns two 
French motor cars, but is often seen in a victoria not unlike the 
other 549, a postilion alone announcing the coming of the Chief 
Executive. 

The Venezuelans are exceedingly fond of sport. On Sun- 



VENEZUELA 



o°/ 




BULL-FIGHT IN CARACAS. 



day there are horse races at the Paraiso track and a bull-fight in 
town with toreadors from Spain. The President patronizes 
the cock-fight, so it is popular at present. In a village near the 
capital, I saw the native sport, coleada, where a bull was liber- 
ated in the main street. Horsemen, approaching at full speed, 
endeavored to throw the animal by giving its tail a dexterous 
twist. To throw the bull at the feet of his lady-fair was the 
great ambition of each contestant. 

The small boys play baseball here in true American style. 
Many of them throng the streets from dawn till long after dark 
selling lottery tickets. The lottery is the most popular insti- 
tution of the country. For the three weekly drawings, $30,000 
worth of tickets are issued, the Government receiving a ten per 
cent commission. Strange to say, there is still enough spare 
cash for another heavy play on the Royal Madrid Lottery of 
Spain. 

From twelve until two o'clock, about everything in town 
closes. It is siesta time. The manana (tomorrow) habit is 
here also. A funeral was passing and a Yankee in town 
turned to a bystander and asked who was dead. 



88 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



"Quien sabeT answered the native, with a shrug of the 
shoulders. 

"So Quien Sabe is dead, is he?" said the American. "Well, 
I wish to Heaven Mariana would die, too !■" 




PATIO OF PRESIDENT'S OFFICIAL RESIDENCE, CARACAS. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 
CURIOUS SIGHTS AND FACTS. 

I DID not return to the coast via the La Guayra-Caracas 
Railway. I had heard so much of the trip from Caracas 
to Puerto Cabello by way of Valencia, that I decided to go that 
way. The two most important ports on the Caribbean are La 
Guayra and Puerto Cabello. From both of these cities rail- 
ways pass to the interior, the one to Caracas, the other to 
Valencia. Between these two points, and connecting them, a 
third railway has been built, tapping a most productive district. 
This interior line, one hundred and twelve miles in length, is 
the road over which Germany and Venezuela had such a con 
troversy some years ago, ending in the bombardment of Puerto 
Cabello by German warships. 

Krupp, the famous gunmaker, secured a most favorable 
concession for the building of this road. The concession car- 
ried with it a Government guarantee of seven per cent on its 
securities. Naturally the Germans did not stint on the expense 
account. They made it an exhibition road in every particular. 
To secure a two per cent grade in this mountainous country, 
two hundred and twelve viaducts and bridges were constructed, 
one of the bridges being over three hundred and fifty feet in 
length. Then there are the tunnels, a whole flock of them 
(eighty-six to be exact), with a total length of three and a half 
miles. The station houses are models. In fact this "exhibit" 
shows about every product of German manufacture which it 
was possible to crowd in. It is "claimed by some" that they 
were intended as permanent exposition buildings. 

Well, when the smoke had cleared away and the line was 
opened in 1894, after six years' work, $15,000,000 had been 
spent — $135,000 per mile for a single track line, putting it in the 
same class with the famous Oroya Road in Peru, which I 
described in my chapters on Peru. Since the road was prac- 

539 



VENEZUELA 591 

tically "made in Germany" (Venezuela supplying the site), the 
Kaiser sent the man-of-war 'Stem over that the officers might 
participate in the glorious opening festivities. Of course the 
road could not pay interest on such an investment. The Gov- 
ernment was called upon to "settle up" for back interest. It 
demurred, claiming that altogether too much had been poured 
in. Finally Germany got both the money and the "exhibit." 
When I boarded the train at Caracas, I noted that this road is a 
different gauge from the La Guayra-Caracas Railway, so all 
goods have to be transshipped at the capital. Quite a handicap ! 

Both the ticket agent and the conductor asked me to write 
my name in their memorandum books. ' The same proceeding 
had been gone through when I came up to Caracas. I wondered 
why. Later I learned that a list of all passengers traveling by 
rail, steamer or canoe, within the jurisdiction of Venezuela, is 
published daily in the papers. It is easy, if you have time, to 
keep track of your friends — and your creditors. Another novel 
feature of travel here is the method by which people are pro- 
tected against missing trains. All clocks at railway stations are 
set five minutes behind city time and as the trains follow 
railroad time, passengers have five minutes' grace to argue 
down the ever-exorbitant coachmen. 

We pulled out of Caracas at seven-thirty in the morning, on 
a six-hour ride to Valencia. My ticket cost nine dollars — eight 
cents a mile. The ride up from La Guayra costs eleven cents a 
mile, so you can see that traveling is a luxury here. We 
climbed out of the Caracas Valley, surrounded by mountains 
9,000 feet high, and followed the Guaire River into a well- 
cultivated country where sugar-cane, corn and a great variety of 
garden-truck are cultivated for the city market. 

In an hour we reached Los Teques, the high point on the 
line, being 3,800 feet above sea level. Its delicious climate has 
made it a popular resort. The Venezuelans call it "the Swit- 
zerland of America." This is the famous coffee section. The 
quality of "Los Teques" brings a top price. Coffee is the great 
staple of the country. Over 200,000 acres are given over to its 
cultivation. The crop of 1910 was valued at over $8,000,000, 
and the 191 1 crop estimated at $12,000,000. A wide stretch 
of country fulfils all conditions desired by the experienced 



VENEZUELA 593 

planter — altitudes from 2,000 to 8,000 feet ; a dark, loamy soil, 
and frequent mists. A fair average crop is about 700 pounds 
to the acre and as prices at present are very good, a coffee 
estate, convenient to market, is the best investment in the 
country. 

It is a picturesque sight on country roads — the long line of 
patient little burros laden with bags of coffee, their cargo pro- 
tected by a covering of rawhide. As many as twenty of the 
little beasts are strung together in single file, their owner, 
decked in the popular brown plush hat, astride the leader. The 
burros run a real competition with the railroads, and in the 
great "unrailed" section have it all their own way. They sell 
as low as three dollars, but the muy buenos (very best) bring 
from eight to ten. Occasionally I saw ox-carts, the animals 
yoked by the horns in Spanish fashion, not by the more humane 
neck yoke as in Brazil. 

From Los Teques we rolled down grade to Valencia through 
a magnificent country, bridging seventy-three chasms, with im- 
pressive views at every turn — mountains stacked chain on 
chain. Now there were occasional cacao estates. The annual 
crop of these chocolate beans is worth about $3,500,000. The 
quality is excellent. Some chocolate manufacturers feature 
the name "Venezuela" in advertising their brands. Chocolate 
is served to perfection in the native hotels. I asked a waiter 
how they make it and it seems they allow it to come to a boil 
three times, then add a spoonful of powdered corn to make it 
smooth. It's "smooth," all right ! 

We stopped at La Victoria, where Castro had his favorite 
country place. He improved the old town, founded in 1593. 
with public buildings and large military barracks. There are 
sugar plantations here and vegetable gardens galore. I saw 
enough garlic and onions to feed all the Spaniards in the world ! 
Not far from here Castro defeated the revolutionary forces led 
by Matos. The slaughter was terrific. A Venezuelan travel- 
ing with me said that he thought this battle the final lesson, that 
with it the scourge of lead-poisoning, in this frightful form, 
passed from the land. God grant it ! 

We came to the famous plantation — Ingenio Bolivar — 
where Ricaurte gave his life in the cause of independence. In 
38 



594 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



y 



>\ 



i> 



y/ 



191 1, during her centenary celebration, the republic unveiled a 
statue here in memory of this hero. Ricaurte's story should 
be featured in our school books. He and his followers were 
surrounded by thousands of Spaniards. They took refuge in a 
sugar house where a stack of powder was stored. Realizing 
that resistance was useless, Ricaurte commanded his compan- 
ions to make their escape under cover of darkness. When a 
regiment attacked the building at dawn, he discharged his re- 
volver into a barrel of powder, giving his own life to kill hun- 
dreds of the enemy — one of the noblest acts in history ! 

Back from the railroad I saw much uncultivated land, only 
awaiting settlers to bloom forth with a great variety of pro- 
ducts. The average density of the population here is less than 
seven per square mile. In the States it is over thirty ; in the 
Republic of Salvador, two hundred and forty. Room for all 
comers here ! 

At Cagua I saw a giant samdn tree measuring thirty-five 
feet in circumference. Its historic branches sheltered such 
illustrious men as Bolivar and Humboldt. Cagua is important 
as the connecting point for the car roads and trails from the 




A NATIVE WHERE THE POPULATION IS ONLY SEVEN PER 
SQUARE MILE. 



VENEZUELA 



595 



llanos, or grazing lands, back in the interior. All the cattle are 
driven here for shipment. 

From the earliest days of Spanish conquest Venezuela has 
been famed as a cattle land. At the time of their War of 
Independence it was estimated that there were 3,000,000 head 
of cattle in the country. The industry has never since been as 
flourishing. The natural grazing lands comprise about 170,- 
000,000 acres. In the past, this industry has been greatly 
handicapped by Government restriction, monopoly and taxation. 
Under favorable conditions the llanos should produce cattle 
ready for slaughter at a cost not to exceed $2.50 a head. 

Three years ago an English company secured a twenty-five- 
year concession, free from taxation, for shipping refrigerated 
meat. An old brewery at Puerto Cabello was remodeled for 
the purpose and the Royal Mail steamers have been carrying 
the product to England. The present plant has a capacity of 
3,000 beeves a month, but has not reached this figure because 
of a scarcity of cattle. Recently a policy of expansion was 
adopted, and the company has brought out experienced Scotch 
breeders and high-class stock, is sinking wells to supply the 
cattle with water during the dry season (May to October), 
and sowing extensive pasture lands with alfalfa. Although 
refrigeration is monopolized by this one company and live 




HOME OF PRESIDENT GOMEZ IN MARACAY. VENEZUELA. 



596 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

export by President Gomez, the industry should reach giant 
proportions within a few years. We can look to Venezuela to 
supply a good share of the beefsteaks of the future to the 
hungry of the world. Last year $1,000,000 worth of hides 
were exported and $170,000 worth of horns. 

We stopped for a few moments at.Maracay, interesting as 
the home of President Gomez, who spends much time here in 
his big white house, the real "White House" of the country. 
Many important men have built homes here, and the sleepy 
little town has become a dot on the map. From here on to 
Valencia is the most populous portion of the country, the very 
heart of the agricultural section. We skirted a blue expanse 
of water, and I recalled the strange lake of which I had read — 
Lake Valencia, which the natives call Tacariqua. It not only 
changes its level mysteriously, but has in the past changed an 
outlet into an inlet and a tributary into an outlet. It seems en- 
circled by mountains, yet its two western outlets at times flow 
in opposite directions — one to the Caribbean and the other to 
the Orinoco. The brackish water contains few fish, but I saw 
an army of alligators which I'm told are not alligators, at all, 
but Old World crocodiles. The lake is twenty miles long, 
twelve miles wide and has over twenty verdant islands. Little 
steamers navigate it. 

Six miles from the lake is the city of Valencia with 40,000 
people, the old capital of the republic. And oh ! but they are 
jealous of Caracas! We were here only thirty minutes as we 
changed cars to the English line for Puerto Cabello — fare, 
$2.50; distance, thirty- four miles. This part of the trip was 
uninteresting, but I was so fortunate as to pick up acquaintance 
with a fellow passenger, an Englishman who has lived twelve 
years in the country and traveled all over it. He said that 
everything was suffering from the drought, thousands of goats 
being dead in the Coro section, just to the west. The raising 
of goats, it seems, is an important industry over there, and 
they sent out $400,000 worth of skins last year. He thought 
that Castro's scheme of assisting industries by placing prohib- 
itive duties on certain foreign articles had worked out all right 
— shoes, for instance. They are all made in the country now, 
factories being everywhere. Native hides and leathers, home 



VENEZUELA 597 

tanned, are utilized. He said the shoes were well made — wore 
them himself. 

While we chatted he handed me a cigar made in the coun- 
try. I was surprised at its quality. The tobacco was grown 
near Puerto Cabello, and an even better leaf comes from Coro 
and other points. This cigar sells for five cents, and the local T 
grown filler and wrapper compare favorably with the Porto 
Rican. There is much unimproved land in the country favor- 
able to tobacco cultivation, but only $40,000 worth of leaf was 
exported last year. The making of cigarettes is now the mon- 
opoly of a large national company. Formerly a lot of little 
factories were scattered about, employing 15,000 people. Castro 
closed them up, which caused a merry row and made him more 
enemies than any other one act. Every man and boy here 
smokes cigarettes. It took $70,000 worth of imported rice 
paper last year to roll the first-class ones. 

"Any chewing tobacco used here?" I asked the Britisher. 

"Yes, there are several factories kept busy turning it out. 
The Indians over in the State of Merida make their own chew- 
ing tobacco by boiling the leaf into a paste." 

"Any fiber plants here?" 

"Yes, an American brought down a machine not long ago to 
prepare fiber for market. He's over in the Coro district, but I 
hear he's stuck for want of water for the boiler. The drought 
is playing havoc over there." 

My companion seemed to think the outlook fairly bright for 
the country, but "The present Government is patterned much 
after the last," he said. "There's little change in operation. 
There is no freedom of the press ; the papers being filled with 
laudatory notices of the Government and of people in power. 
When the President's term of office expires, he'll appoint his 
Minister of Finance, Antonio Pimentel, to take his place for 
four years until he can take hold again." 

We had now reached Puerto Cabello. The place owes its 
importance to its harbor, "one of the finest in the world," if 
you can rely on what the natives say. The old Spaniards 
named it Cabello (hair), meaning that, in its placid waters, the 
ship could be held by a hair. They built a fort on the point 
to resist the pirates. Today the fort, remodeled, has eight- 



VENEZUELA 599 

inch Creusot guns which Castro bought. He made this a 
creditable port of entry by dredging the harbor and building 
docks, wharves, a navy yard and a modern dry dock. 

I had heard of the "Hotel of the Baths" in Puerto Cabello 
and had a vision of a real bathtub and maybe hot water ! The 
motheaten old building on the shore did not look promising. 

"I want room and bath," I announced in my best Spanish! 

"Si, sell or, perfectamente." 

The bath was there, all right. It was right by the bed. It 
was, in fact, twice as large as the bedroom itself, a bit of the 
sea reached from it by a flight of stone steps and walled off 
from the next fellow's bathroom. The surf beat into my room 
all night. It was a case of being "Rocked in the Cradle of the 
Deep." 

I could not resist taking a trip over to Maracaibo, the im- 
portant city at the western end of Venezuela. I boarded the 
little steamer, Manzannares, of only 1,500 tons, at Puerto 
Cabello, and we made the run over in a little under twelve 
hours. The steamer belongs to a new company (Venezuelan) 
that paid twenty-eight per cent dividends in 191 1. Formerly 
the only way to reach Maracaibo was via the Dutch island of 
Curacao. The town, which has about 40,000 inhabitants, is 
situated just inside the great marine inlet known as Lake 
Maracaibo, the largest gulf of this part of the world. It is 
one hundred and fifty miles long and sixty miles wide, with 
depth sufficient to float the largest ocean steamers. The en- 
trance, however, is so obstructed by sandbars that only light- 
draft vessels can enter, so commerce is mostly carried on by 
little "tubs" which transship their cargo at Curacao. 

A steamer of the "Red D" line, flying the American flag, 
was at the dock when we arrived. It was loading a full cargo 
of coffee. Besides being the natural port for a vast and pro- 
ductive region in western Venezuela, Maracaibo is also the 
most available outlet for a large portion of eastern Colombia, 
so probably half of the coffee known in our markets as "Mara- 
caibo" is really a Colombian product. Immense bales of deer- 
skin were being loaded on the boat, and I found that deer 
abound in the country back of the lake — $60,000 worth being 
shipped out in 191 1. Good country for the sportsman! 



600 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Maracaibo has a bad name abroad. One writer calls it 
"the graveyard of earthly hopes and fears." There is fever 
here, and with an average temperature of eighty in an ever- 
humid land, we may well call it "a hot town." A former 
American consul "held the job" here for thirty years. The 
story is told that his successor was appointed and became his 
guest on arriving. Discovering a nice metallic coffin in the 
closet of his bedroom, the new arrival inquired regarding it 
next morning. The consul was profuse in his apologies, and 
explained that the fever season was just setting in and it was 
the custom to be ready for emergencies. The new appointee 
took the next boat back to New York. 

In looking over a Maracaibo paper, I saw that every article 
received by merchants through the custom house was listed. 
All over the country dailies publish such lists, it seems. No 
chance here of advertising "A Brand New Stock of Parasols" 
unless you can "deliver the goods." 

Maracaibo, like La Guayra, has its leper hospital, and here 
they are planning an extension ! 

There are immense deposits of asphalt near the lake and an 
American company spent considerable money preparing to 
develop the industry, under the impression that its concession 
permitted it to ship out without export duty. The company 
tried it, but it did not "go." Then Critchfield, one of the 
owners, got our State Department to intervene. Finally the 
Government bought out the company. 

From Maracaibo I sailed for a thousand miles to the east 
along the Venezuelan coast, stopping at Margarita, the famous 
pearl island. These pearl fisheries date back to pre-Columbian 
times. The Indian women seen by the first explorers were 
adorned with necklaces and bracelets of pearls. At the island 
of Cubagua, near Margarita, they found the fisheries in opera- 
tion. Here, on the almost submerged isle, they founded one 
of the first colonies of the New World. Sheds were erected, 
wood and water brought from the mainland, and the natives 
put to work in earnest bringing up the pearl oysters. Here a 
city rose with costly churches — a city built on pearls. 

In 1527 Charles V. granted it a royal charter, New Cadiz 
it was called. The poor Indians, who had been so ready to 



602 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

assist the strange newcomers, were reduced to slavery. New 
Cadiz was the mart not only for pearls, but for human beings. 
After fifty years of infamous prosperity, a hurricane one day 
swept Cubagua. The island was submerged, to reappear in its 
primitive state. 

Margarita had better luck. Up to a few years ago two 
thousand men found employment here in the pearl trade and 
the annual output was valued at $900,000 a year. The methods 
were so primitive that immense numbers of oysters were sacri- 
ficed. In 191 1 the export fell to $80,000. A French company 
has now secured the exclusive concession; giving the Govern- 
ment ten per cent royalty, and is introducing modern diving 
apparatus, displacing the heavy metallic scoops dragged on the 
bottom of the sea and drawn to the surface by a clumsy hand 
windlass. I found the natives of the island busily engaged in 
fishing for redsnappers and Spanish mackerel — quite a come 
down from pearls ! 

My next stop was 'way around in the Orinoco delta, where 
our little vessel docked at the village of Guanaco, the shipping 
point of the asphalt from the famous Venezuelan Pitch Lake. 
I hopped aboard the little narrow-gauge train for a trip out to 
the lake while my ship unloaded her cargo. For five miles the 
little toy rails zigzagged their uneven way through the jungle. 
At the end, the strange lake appeared as a plain between low 
swamps and foothills. It covers over 1,000 acres and from it 
is taken 25,000 tons of asphalt annually for shipment to the 
United States. Negroes are employed in the mining, which 
consists of loosening up the pitch with picks and dumping it 
into the endless chain of carriers which bring it to the big vats 
for boiling. The boiling frees it from foreign matter. On 
reaching its destination in the States, the pitch is again "mined" 
with picks from the steamer's hold. 

I have called the deposit at Guanaco "the Pitch Lake," but it 
is really more of a swamp, short grass and clumps of ferns 
alternating with the pitch bubbles. I walked over a portion of 
it, but in some places my feet sank when I lingered. It was 
better to keep on the move. At one end of the swamp is "the 
Mother of the Lake," where the matter is always soft and 
where no vegetation grows. There is one oasis called "Parrot 



604 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

Island," guarded on all sides by quaking pitch, where hun- 
dreds of green "pollies" roost at night, flying off to the feeding 
grounds at dawn. 

The New York and Bermudez Company, which works this 
deposit, has built a modern plant with comfortable quarters for 
its employes. The manager is, of the opinion that asphaltum, 
made from our mineral oils in the States, will not interfere 
with the sale of the Venezuelan product, which is of a different 
quality. Its most common use is for paving, but it is also used 
for roofing, waterproofing, making varnish, covering electric 
cables, lining cold-storage plants, corking wooden ships, and in 
the manufacture of shoe blacking. 

The Caribbean Oil Company, a relative of the New York 
and Bermudez Company, has recently secured a concession to 
drill for oil on 200,000 square miles of Venezuelan territory. 
A crew of expert drillers had just arrived at Guanaco at the 
time of my visit. Large quantities of oil are now being shipped 
from the Island of Trinidad, just across the Gulf of Paria, 
where there is also a Pitch Lake, so I see no reason why the 
Guanaco and Maracaibo fields should not become heavy pro- 
ducers. It was the new company's intention to deliver oil in 
tank steamers to La Guayra and pump it up to Caracas where 
fuel is exceedingly high. Coal costs fifteen dollars a ton there, 
almost valuable enough to use' for jewelry! 

I became so interested in this part of the country that I 
decided to voyage up the Orinoco River. The Orinoco is one 
of the great rivers of the world, exceeded only in volume in 
the New World by the Amazon, La Plata, Mississippi and St. 
Lawrence. It ranks ninth among world rivers. Its head- 
waters are away up on the Brazilian border and many of its 
tributaries rise in the Colombian highlands. It is navigable for 
stern wheelers to Ciudad Bolivar, 260 miles from the sea, at all 
seasons of the year, small vessels going far beyond this point. 
If the bar at one of the thirty-six mouths of the river could be 
dredged, a barrier of rocks up the river removed, and the max- 
imum depth of fifteen feet made thirty, a great future would 
be insured for the four thousand miles of river and tributaries. 
Free navigation of the stream would, of course, be necessary. 



VENEZUELA 



605 



Now there are few steamers on the Orinoco, all operated by a 
Venezuelan company. 

The delta is a weird maze of waters. Even the Warrau 
Indian in his "dugout" canoe sometimes is lost in the wilder- 
ness of its crisscross channels. The great river, sweeping along 
like a millrace, is filling the Gulf of Paria with mud. The 
delta islands are not very habitable, but perhaps the time will 
come when they will form tracts of fertile land. Indians alone 
can live in these mosquito swamps. They probably owe their 
lives to the fact that no one has ever cared to evict them from 
their wilderness. 

Little but bird life is seen in these channels, among them 




ON A SHORE OF THE ORINOCO RIVER. 



being the snowy white heron, (the egret of commerce) ; the 
flame-colored ibis, and the macaws of brilliant plumage. Farther 
up the river on the mainland there are monkeys of all kinds, 
among them the terrific red howler, which wakens the forest 
with its roar. 

"Any sloths or porcupines?" I asked the captain. 

"Why, the woods are full of 'em. But they're such a tame 
lot, catching them is about as much sport as picking black- 
berries !" 

The jaguar, the South American "tiger" (really a leopard), 
roams through this forest, hunting the poor, harmless tapir, 
the largest but perhaps the gentlest of the wild kindred. Coiled 



6o6 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




INDIANS OF THE UPPER ORINOCO RIVER, 
VENEZUELA. 



in the branches, overhanging the river, are snakes — black, 
spotted and yellow fellows — and I saw one water boa, fourteen 
feet long. The mate "landed" it with a rifle. Alligators by 
the thousands; turtles of great size and electric eels, carrying 
storage batteries with them strong enough to discourage river 
bathing, also appear in this "Natural History Collection." For 
real excitement there are the Caribe fish ! They swim in 
schools, armed with three rows of saw-like teeth, attacking fish, 
animal or man that may come their way. 

To the left, going up stream, is the Venezuelan Guiana, that 
El Dorado which has lured so many men to their doom. The 



VENEZUELA 607 

Spanish, Dutch, French and British all sought and fought for 
gold here in long-ago days. Even in our own time, this section 
has been under controversy. England claimed her right to it 
on the ground of history, exploration and occupation. (Mostly 
"occupation" since she had been slowly shifting her colonial 
border.) Venezuela's claim rested on old Spanish maps. It 
meant the control of the Orinoco, and Venezuela won. This 
section of the republic is little known, yet a few of its mines are 
famous — El Callao, for instance, which produced over $12,- 
000,000 before its vein was lost. These mineral lands have a 
great future. 

We stopped at Imataca, fifty miles up the river. This is 
one of the great iron deposits of the globe. There had been 
a great scramble for its possession and the Pierson group of 
Canadian capitalists had secured it. The company was plan- 
ning gigantic development. There were over 200,000 tons of 
seventy-five per cent pure magnetic Bessemer ore exposed in 
one outcrop, and I hardly dare print the expert's figures of the 
ore held in reserve. Shipment to the States had already begun. 
Electric power was to be used in all the mining operations. 

Our little steamer had to make frequent stops to take on 
firewood from measured piles stacked on shore. I saw banana 
plantations at some of these wood stations and also the in- 
evitable manioc from which the native cassava bread is made. 
There was an occasional patch of sugar-cane. The method of 
extracting the juice is primitive — an ox mill equipped with 
wooden rollers. Boiling the juice seems to be the beginning 
and end of the sugar manufacture. The Government is assist- 
ing this industry by prohibiting the importation of sugar. 

These river folk use the Orinoco as their only highway and 
regard Caracas as the great distant metropolis. Their geography 
is hazy beyond the capital. This whole fertile country is sparsely 
populated. There are no cities, merely hamlets, until Ciudad 
Bolivar is reached. The shores of the great river lack people 
and capital. 

Ciudad Bolivar is the fifth city of Venezuela, its population 
being 14,000. Originally it was a Spanish town called Santo 
Thome ; later it was called Angostura, meaning the Narrows, 
for at this point the river is confined in a deep channel. In 



6o8 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




HOUSE WHERE GENERAL SIMON BOLIVAR, THE LIBERATOR, LIVED 
IN CIUDAD BOLIVAR, VENEZUELA. 



1846 the name was changed to Ciudad Bolivar — city of Bolivar. 
It was here that the famous "Congress of Angostura" was held 
in 1813 when Bolivar formed his "Great Republic of Colom- 
bia." 

The well known bitters — "Angostura," an important in- 
gredient in the American cocktail — were formerly made here. 
(The factory has been moved to Port of Spain, Trinidad.) The 
herbs used are found in the Orinoco forest. It is the one Ven- 
ezuelan product "on which the sun never sets." Two impor- 
tant exports of Ciudad Bolivar are balata and tonka beans. Few 
Americans have heard of either. 

Balata is a near relative of rubber. It is used principally 
in automobile tires. Last year $2,000,000 worth of balata was 
shipped from the Orinoco, besides $900,000 of pure "Para" 
rubber. But much of the Venezuelan rubber gathered near the 
Brazilian border reaches its market via Brazil through the 
Cassiquiare, that strange natural canal which connects the Ori- 
noco and Amazon River systems. The balata gatherers are 
criminally careless, felling, rather than tapping, the trees. In 



VENEZUELA 609 

this way many valuable trees are left to rot, for the balata, be- 
sides yielding gum, is a fine timber tree. 

For many years it was understood that the half-million 
dollars' worth of tonka beans shipped annually to the United 
States were used, in a pulverized form, in snuff and tobacco to 
give them "bouquet." It was also known that soap and per- 
fumery manufacturers made use of the fragrant beans. But 
it took Dr. Wiley's Pure Food Law to expose the fact that 
Tonka had been masquerading as "Pure Vanilla Extract." 
Now you will notice that your vanilla label reads, "Extract of 
Vanilla and Tonka Bean." These beans are the dried seeds of 
a fruit tree native to northern South America. The first speci- 
men was supposed to have reached Europe from Tonka in 
French Cochin China, hence the name. 

There are in this beautiful and bountiful country many 
things of interest that I have not been able to mention for 
want of space. Like many of the South American countries, a 
volume might be written about Venezuela's political history 
alone. From its earliest years it has been swayed and shaken 
by revolutions, but as time goes on the convulsions are less 
frequent and less violent. Without question it will ultimately 
become a great and prosperous nation with a well-organized 
and stable Government. May this be her happy lot ! 



39 



COLOMBIA 

Area, 435,000 square miles, or about the area of the States of 
Nezv York, Ohio, Texas, Alabama and South Carolina 
combined — -Coast line about 1,300 miles, both upon the At- 
lantic and the Pacific Oceans — Chief natural resources, 
coffee, rubber, sugar, cacao, tobacco, valuable tvoods, vege- 
table ivory, Panama hats, salt, pelts, cattle, orchids, gold, 
silver, platinum, copper, coal, petroleum, marble, fruits, 
precious stones — Total exports and imports in 1011, $34,- 
000,000 — Exports to the United States, ion, $8,094,460; 
imports from the United States, $4,005,034 — Standing 
army, j,ooo — Navy, 11 ships — Capital, Bogota, population, 
130,000 — Total population of Colombia, 4,500,000. 

CHAPTER XL. 

HOME OF ALLIGATORS AND ORCHIDS. 

IT IS to be regretted that Colombia did not retain her old 
name of "New Granada" given her by Jimenez de Quesada 
in remembrance of his birthplace in Andalusia, Spain. Now, 
with British Columbia, "Hail Columbia," "Columbia, Gem of 
the Ocean," and a few others, this belated attempt to stamp the 
discoverer's name on some portion of terra firma is a bit con- 
fusing. The South American republic, "United States of Co- 
lombia," is spelled with an "o" from "Colon," while all the 
others are derived from the English version of the great 
Admiral's name — "Columbus." 

At present writing and for some time past, the United States 
of Colombia has been giving the United States of America 
"Hail Columbia" over the Panama Canal question. From the 
grandstand, the plays were as follows : Uncle Sam wanted 
the chance to complete the canal begun and abandoned by the 
French. Colombia owned the land. The trade was on ! Repre- 
sentatives of the two countries agreed on terms and conditions 
and the proceeding was moving fairly smooth, when — "Bang!" 
Colombia's Congress rejected the whole transaction! Panama, 
naturally desirous that Uncle Sam begin spending money on the 

610 



COLOMBIA 



611 



great ditch, talked of quitting Mother Colombia and setting up 
housekeeping for herself. 

Of course Colombia had an army large enough to prevent 
any such occurrence, but the wise men up in Bogota assured 
the people that Uncle Sam, recalling the cause of his own Civil 
War, would spank the rebellious child and send her back home. 
Panama announced her independence, and Uncle Sam called, 
as scheduled; but, instead of acting "true to label," told the 
rebellious one to remain just where she was, and announced 
that Mother Colombia was to leave her alone. When the people 
of Colombia "got the message," they started out with machetes 
after the wise men ! Said wise men "took to the tall timber" — 
otherwise scattered themselves over the capitals of Europe. 
Result — Panama remained a republic and Uncle Sam is digging 
the ditch. 

Although the Colombian Government, officially, has calmed 
down a bit since 1903, and sent a diplomatic representative to 
Washington, with the hope of having the whole matter placed 
before The Hague Tribunal, the masses are still unreconciled. 
It was the fear of an uprising which prevented Colombia from 




THE PIER AT PUERTO COLOMBIA, OCEAN PORT OF BARRANQUILLA, 
EIGHTEEN MILES DISTANT. 



6l2 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



sending an urgent invitation to Secretary of State Knox to 
visit the country in the spring of 19 12. It is rumored that 
Uncle Sam has hinted that he may buy a Colombian island, 
suitable as a coaling station, paying a most satisfactory price 
for it. But Colombia refuses the balm in this form, still in- 
cludes Panama in her list of States and keeps up an incessant 
cry for adjustment at The Hague. 

Undoubtedly the benefit of the canal to Colombia will be 




COLOMBIAN MAN-OF-WAR CARTAGENA, FORMERLY PRIVATE 
YACHT OF THE SULTAN OF MOROCCO. 



enormous. She has a long coast on the Pacific and on the 
Caribbean, about 1,300 miles on each coast. She is as large as 
France, Germany and Belgium combined, but sparsely inhab- 
ited, having only 4,500,000 people. She is rich in natural re- 
sources, especially in minerals. The completion of the canal 
will bring the shipping of the world in sight of her shores and 
development will surely follow. 

The front door of the country, Puerto Colombia, looks like 



COLOMBIA 613 

the back yard! This Caribbean port, known of old as Saba- 
nilla, is in the delta of the Magdalena River. It consists of a 
tremendously long pier, which cost $300,000, and a desolate, 
wind-swept little village. From here there is an hour's train 
ride, through an uninteresting country, to Barranquilla, me- 
tropolis of the Lower Magdalena. A roundabout, but far 
more attractive way of reaching Barranquilla, is via the Carib- 
bean port of Santa Marta, east of Puerto Colombia. Santa 
Marta is a picturesque little place and one of the oldest settle- 
ments on the Spanish Main, having been founded in 1525. Its 
harbor is one of the safest on the Caribbean, but rather con- 
tracted in area. Behind the town the hills terrace up to the 
snowy "Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta," which towers nearly 
17,000 feet above sea level. 

The nature of the country here varies with the season. 
During the mc nths of rain, it is semi-tropical ; in the dry season, 
semi-arid. The trade of Santa Marta is largely due to the 
United Fruit Company, whose banana plantations extend for 
miles beyond the town. An English company has built a 
ninety-mile railway into the interior, enabling the crop of 
bananas to reach the steamer's hold. The fruit is raised with 
irrigation and is of very good quality, although the drought of 
1911-12 demonstrated that moisture in the air is necessary for 
the production of prime stock; simply "bathing the feet" will 
not suffice. The annual banana crop of this region has already 
passed the million-dollar mark and is still going up. 

To reach Barranquilla from Santa Marta, I rode out on the 
"Banana Railway" for twenty-five miles to the town of Cienaga, 
which has a larger population than Santa Marta, as it is the 
home of many of the employes on the plantations and the rail- 
road. It was hard to believe that this thatched settlement 
boasted of 25,000 inhabitants. Here at nightfall I boarded a 
rickety little steamer for the voyage through the cauos of the 
Magdalena delta. The craft was two-decked, stern-wheeled, 
slab-sided and wheezy — the type used on the Mississippi in "the 
good old steamboat days." The lower deck was filled with 
wood for fuel, the supply to be replenished during the voyage. 
A motley assembly of passengers crowded the upper deck, 
mostly negroes. I was given the only cabin, which rightfully 



614 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




NATIVES IN DUGOUT SEEN IN THE SHADOWS OF THE SHORE AS 

WE PASSED. 



belonged to the captain (a white man from Jamaica) whose 
old father occupied the proud position of purser. 

We were late in starting and crossed the wide lagoon of 
Cienaga Grande by moonlight, only to stick fast on a mud bank 
on the other side. Due to reach the Magdalena and Barran- 
quilla early next morning, I wakened to find that we were still 
in the canos. For hours we wound through these narrow, 
shallow streams with a forest of mangroves on either side. 
Natives now and then, poling their laden canoes, water fowl 
and alligators, alone broke the monotony of the shores. The 
killing of alligators for their skins has become an important in- 
dustry in this part of Colombia. An American firm in Newark, 
N. J., which practically controls the world's market, took 30,000 
Colombian skins last year. A new use for the leather has been 
found in the upholstering of automobile and carriage seats and 
the resulting demand may be enormous. 

At present the Colombian skins come from not over three 
hundred miles of canos and lagoons on the Lower Magdalena, 
and as it is estimated that there are over four thousand miles 
of the "alligator-bearing streams" in the country, the industry 



COLOMBIA 



6i5 



is capable of almost unlimited expansion ; nor is there a possi- 
bility of an early extinction of the reptiles, as every full-grown 
female lays over one hundred eggs yearly. From 1905 to 1910, 
an exclusive concession was granted to an American who es- 
tablished over twenty gath- 
ering stations. Since 1910, 
the "profession" has been 
open to all comers, and it 
is expected that the pro- 
duction will soon reach 
100,000 skins per year. 

While there are a num- 
ber of varieties of alligators 
in Colombian waters, only 
two possess skins of com- 
mercial value. Among 
those "rejected for cause" 
is the needle-snouted fel- 
low, of which many speci- 
mens, over twenty- four feet 
long and six feet in dia- 
meter, have been found. 
These large hides tan ad- 
mirably, but, unfortunately, 
they have a pip mark in the 
center of each scale which, 
considered a flaw, prevents 
their reincarnation into 
suitcases. They are only 
bought, once in a while, as 
curiosities. As alligator 
leather fetches a compara- 
tively high price, the tan- 
ners pay $1.50 for a skin 
from seven to ten feet long. 
It must be "green salted," 
as stiff, sun-dried skins are 
worthless. 

The army in Colombia 

A DEFUNCT RESIDENT OF THE MAGDALEN A 
DELTA. 




6i6 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



has the monopoly of the use of rifles, so the alligator hunters 
are forced to adopt other methods. During the high-water 
season the reptiles rush on to the inundated flats, preying on 
ascending fish. As the waters lower, they crowd back through 
the connecting channels and the hunters, in their turn, play 
havoc with the alligators. Riding on the end. of a long, nar- 
row canoe, with uplifted harpoon, the clever, agile hunter is 
wheeled about by his no less expert mate in the stern, and woe 
to the hapless 'gator chancing to rise within thirty feet of the 
spearman, for his doom is sealed. Often the hunter will not 




SCENE ON THE LOWER MAGDALENA RIVER. 

wait for his prey to come to the surface, but, guided by a 
streak of bubbles from the breathing animal, will send his 
spear flying with deadly aim, and a large specimen will be 
hauled to the bank to be stunned by a blow from an ax. 
When the flats are drained at low water, hundreds of alligators 
remain stuck in the slime over which their short paws cannot 
drag their heavy bodies. It is then that hunters make "record 
catches." 

In the main rivers, the reptiles are not molested, save by an 



COLOMBIA 



617 



occasional pistol shot from a passing steamer, for the. swift 
current and deep water holes afford them easy means of escape. 
Every ounce of an alligator may be turned into a marketable 
product. The scrapings from the valuable hide can be utilized 
in making glue. The teeth, a perfectly white ivory of medium 
hardness, are easily worked into an endless variety of small 
articles, such as thimbles, buttons and cigar holders. The 
grease, which constitutes a large percentage of the body, pro- 
duces a clear light yellow oil, resembling cod liver oil, and is 
widely used by the natives for pulmonary diseases. 

The white, and seemingly palatable, flesh is not eaten by the 
natives, although they relish the eggs. There is no doubt, how- 
ever, but that the former could be suitably prepared for human 
and animal food. The bones could be used as a fertilizer and 
the musk-secreting glands are certainly of value. The popular 
belief that the parent alligators devour their young has no 
foundation. It probably originated from the fact that the 
solicitous mother helps the newly born 'gator to swim by open- 
ing her mouth and allowing the little one to use the lower jaw 
as a diving stand. There is no more ferocious creature in de- 
fense of its young than the female alligator. 

We came through the last of the canos at noon and reached 
the wide, muddy Magdalena, the great Colombian highway, 




A GLIMPSE OF THE MAGDALENA RIVER. 



6i8 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




TWISTING THE BULLS TAIL, AN AMATEUR BULL-FIGHT IN 

BARRANQUILLA, COLOMBIA. SUCH BULL-FIGHTS ARE 

HELD DURING THE CARNIVAL SEASON. 



which affords practically the only means of transportation to 
the north. Across the river lay Barranquilla, the most im- 
portant town, commercially, of the republic. 

Barranquilla lies fifteen miles from the bar which prevents 
access from the ocean to the river, and this want of direct com- 
munication is supplied by eighteen miles of rail to the pier at 
Puerto Colombia. The bar at the mouth of the Magdalena has 
been formed by the sea precipitating the mud held in solution 
in the river water, and this choking has been artificially assisted 
by revolutionists. Today only shallow-draft sailing vessels can 
enter the river, but the Government has extensive plans for 
dredging and the construction of jetties similar to those at the 
delta of the Mississippi. Money for the actual work is not as 
yet forthcoming. 

Barranquilla is an ugly, colorless town built on the sands. 
It is modern, with no historical associations. The streets are 



COLOMBIA 



619 



wide, but unpaved, and often inches deep in sand, which, with 
the ever-prevalent wind, makes walking or driving most dis- 
agreeable. The quintas, or villas, on the higher land back of 
the town, form the only attractive feature. Here the mer- 
chants, many of them Germans, have their homes. 

On the busy water-front I found "a flock of river boats," all 
built on the same pattern — double-decked, wood-burning,' 
paddle- wheeled affairs, over half of them made in Wilmington, 




PARADE CALLED THE BATTLE OF THE FLOWERS, DURING 
CARNIVAL SEASON, BARRANQUILLA, COLOMBIA. 



Del. They navigate the Magdalena, the Cauca and the Nichi 
Rivers. 

Last year Barranquilla handled just fifty per cent of the 
total trade of $34,000,000, with the other nine ports of entry 
trailing behind. Still, she is having her troubles, as the bay at 
Puerto Colombia is fast filling with silt, and unless dredging 
begins within a few years, a good portion of her trade may be 



COLOMBIA 



621 



diverted to Cartagena. Cartagena is next in importance to 
Barranquilla, commercially, and is reached from Puerto Co- 
lombia by ocean steamer in five or six hours, or by sixty-five 
miles of river travel to the village of Calamar, where connection 
is made with the Cartagena-Magdalena Railway for another 
sixty-five miles. 




CHURCH OF SAN PEDRO DE CLAVER, ONE OF THE OLDEST ON THE 
CONTINENT, CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA. 



The fine land-locked harbor of Cartagena is enormously 
superior to Puerto Colombia's open roadstead, and attempts 
have been made to restore to the city its ancient prosperity. 
The American capitalists who built the Cartagena-Magdalena 



622 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Railway gave up the fight and turned the road over to an 
English company, which in turn has called in Colombian man- 
agement in the hope of developing business. It is not, how- 
ever, as a commercial port, present or future, that the traveler 
regards Cartagena ; rather as a relic of Colonial days, it being 
the most perfectly preserved of the walled cities of the sixteenth 
century to be found in the New World. For more than three 
centuries its walls have stood, unbroken, its ancient arched por- 
tals still forming the only entrance, although a railway is just 
outside its gates. 

Within the walls, the narrow, balcony-hung streets still 
wear a medieval air, and one recalls the days of Spanish 




A SUBURB OF CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA. THE GREAT BUILDING ON 

THE HILL WAS ONCE A SPANISH FORT. IT IS 

NOW A CONVENT. 



COLOMBIA 



623 



supremacy in South America, when spurred officers and com- 
manders of galleons clanked noisily down these thoroughfares. 
Cartagena's splendid harbor was then the haven for Spain's 
famous treasure ships, and to guard this treasure, awaiting the 
arrival of the galleons, walls and forts costing $30,000,000 were 
erected, the walls, in many places, forty feet thick. Probably 
no other port in America has witnessed such desperate fighting 
so persistently continued. It was attacked by the French, by 
the English under Drake, and later under Vernon. Lawrence 
Washington, brother of George Washington, was with Admiral 
Vernon in the siege of Cartagena. It was in honor of the 
Admiral that our "Mount Vernon" was named. 

It was repeatedly attacked by pirates and indeed, for years, 
was in a state of continuous siege. Eight years ago, during a 
civil war, it was besieged, and for the first time met modern 
cannon directed from a man-of-war, but the great walls were 
unshaken and the quaint old city still stands, undisturbed. 




PRISON AT CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA, WHICH 

WAS FORMERLY THE CHURCH 

OF SAX JOSE. 



I 



CHAPTER XLI. 

EXPLORING THE INTERIOR. 

HAD occasion to send a wire to Bogota while in Cartagena 
and found that the Government operates all lines, the rate 
being one cent a word for the first ten words to any part of the 
country. But the eleventh word is two cents, the twelfth three, 
and so on ! It seems that the low rate per word caused mer- 
chants to send regular lettergrams, monopolizing the wires, so 
the Government applied just the reverse action to our American 
methods. 

Paper money has practically displaced gold and silver in 
Colombia. For a twenty-dollar gold-piece I received a bale of 
dirty paper bills large enough to stuff a lounge. These peso 
bills were worth par one dollar gold in 1874, exchange advancing 
until it reached the high water mark, 189 pesos to one dollar 
gold in 1902. Since then exchange has fallen, and today the 
Colombian dollar bill is worth a little less than a cent in our 
money. 

A story is told of an American prospector, just landed in the 
country, who admired a spirited horse and offered the owner 
three hundred dollars for it. 

"No, senorl Impossible!" answered the Colombian. "I 
paid five hundred dollars yesterday to have him shod !" 

I had brought a saddle with me, expecting, of course, to use 
it before reaching the capital of Colombia, so far distant from 
the coast. Instead, I learned that the entire journey can be 
made by train and steamer. From Cartagena I returned by rail 
to the Magdalena River, passing the famous "Dique" — half 
canal, half river — which connects the Magdalena with the sea 
near Cartagena. This canal was originally opened by Philip II. 
of Spain, and was in use until the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, when it choked with silt and remained closed until 
thirty years ago, when it was again reopened for sailing craft, 

624 



COLOMBIA 



62: 



At Calamar, I boarded a typical "Lower River" boat and 
started up river to La Dorada, 480 miles to the north. Here I 
changed to a railway around the rapids. Then another transfer 
to an "Upper River" steamer, ninety-three miles to Girardot, 
where I took a train for Bogota, 109 miles across the plateau. I 
had been assured in Calamar that I would reach Bogota in nine 
days, but delays, caused by low water, were numerous, and by 
the time we had struggled clear of the last mud bank at 
Girardot, eighteen days had lapsed ! 




CAMBOA ON THE UPPER MAGDALENA RIVER. 



Eighteen fairly exciting days, for we carried a stock of dyna- 
mite as part of our cargo, and with frequent collisions with 
shoals and sunken trees, were often in danger of being "blown 
to kingdom come." The steamers left much to be desired — not 
overly clean and with impossible food ; but, in spite of its 
drawbacks, the man who has made up his mind not to look for 
luxury will recall this journey with pleasure, from the tropics 
and sea level to ever-perpetual spring, 9,000 feet higher. 

The Lower River is not especially interesting, but beyond 
40 



626 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



the rapids the Upper River scenery becomes impressive, there 
being magnificent forests teeming with vegetable and animal 
life. Here we found a new type of river craft, the champan, 
much in use by the natives, requiring from fifteen to eighteen 
men to punt it against the current. I was reminded of the 
galleys of old ! A semi-circular roof of bamboo at one end 
affords protection from sun and rain. These picturesque boats 
are sometimes called into use when a steamer strands on a sand 
bank, but, at best, they are far from comfortable. 




NATIVES AND HUT ON THE UPPER MAGDALENA RIVER. 



Among my fellow passengers were several officers of the 

Colombian army, looking very smart and, of course, traveling 

first-class. The troop of soldiers as "deckers" down below 

was rather a woe-begone lot. It was not kind of me to recall 

the story of a Colombian revolution and the enlisting officer 

who sent the following note to his superior : 

"Dear and Honored Colonel: By this boat I am sending you forty 
volunteers. Please return the ropes!" 



COLOMBIA 



627 



The standing army numbers 7,000, and the Government 
keeps the men in good physical training by putting them at work 
repairing roads. We had a number of foreigners on board. 
Three naturalists from the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory in New York left the boat halfway up river to start on a 
six months' trip collecting and studying the strange animal life 
of the jungle. There was an artist in the party and, assisted 
by his sketches, they planned to reproduce a number of Colom- 
bian forest scenes, in exact detail, for the museum, using the 
birds which they obtained, thus bringing the wilds back to 
civilization. 

Another interesting companion for a part of the voyage was 
an American orchid collector. He had been in the country the 
year before and was returning to secure a second lot of air 
plants. He told me that he had had no difficulty in securing 
the rare plants. His method of working was to show the In- 
dians a sample of the exact flower desired, naming the price he 
would pay, and the natives 
would come into camp 
laden. His difficulty was 
that of transporting the 
plants, and indeed prac- 
tically everything in the 
country is inaccessible. The 
plants were carried on the 
backs of Indians for long 
distances to the river ports 
and shipped to England 
and America. He said he 
had caused some 4,000 
trees to be felled to secure 
10,000 plants and had re- 
cently sold one of the rarest 
for $6,000. 

The vanilla bean of com- 
merce, it seems, is an or- 
chid, and is the only one of 
the family which produces 
anything of value outside 




TYPES OF NATIVES ENGAGED IN 

HUNTING ORCHIDS, 

COLOMBIA. 



COLOMBIA 629 

of the blossom. He said that some of his Indians in the past 
season declared that, in one part of the forest, the perfume 
from the orchids was so strong as to overpower many who 
entered. While he did not take much stock in the yarn, he in- 
tended to investigate the region himself. 

We passed many rubber trees which were tapped, but many 
grow so far from the river that their exploitation has not been 
undertaken. Last year less than $400,000 worth of rubber was 
exported. 

There is a great demand for cariniana wood, which is known 
to us as "Colombian mahogany." It is not a mahogany at all, 
being of an altogether different family ; but, of the twenty and 
more woods used as a substitute, it is by far the best imitation. 
It does not warp or shrink, is beautifully figured and takes a 
high polish, hence there seems no reason why it should not be 
employed for all the purposes for which true mahogany is used. 
The great popularity of the true mahogany as a furniture and 
finishing wood has caused a steady depletion of the available 
supply. Few realize that the consumption of material passing 
as mahogany in the markets amounts to forty million feet per 
annum, while the cut of true mahogany is only eighteen million 
feet. Also all about the Caribbean a great deal of cedar is cut 
and shipped to the United States to be used in the manufacture 
of cigar boxes. 

To those who appreciate really fine coffee, that obtained in 
Colombia, even on the river steamers, is a revelation. It is 
delicious and is served at all hours. There is not one depart- 
ment in the republic in which coffee is not grown. It is the lead- 
ing product, valued last season at $6,000,000. All the tobacco 
grown goes to Germany ($500,000 worth) and the vegetable 
ivory to Germany and the United States. 

Over $800,000 worth of so-called "Panama" hats were 
woven in Colombia in 191 1, and we Americans wore practically 
all of them. The salt monopoly belongs to the Government 
and, next to the custom dues, is the most important item on the 
"receipt side" of the budget. The coast districts produce salt 
by evaporation, but the main source of supply is Cipaquia, about 
thirty miles from Bogota. Here 12,000 tons of rock salt are 
mined annually. 



630 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



Formerly the Government owned the hides on all cattle 
killed in the country, but this law has been abolished, the Gov- 
ernment now placing a head tax on all cattle killed or exported ; 
$1,500,000 worth of cattle and hides were exported in 191 1. 

I found Bogota most attractively situated on a high plain 
overshadowed by mountains. The climate is ideal, save for an 
occasional fog straying up from the lower valleys. At 9,000 
feet above the sea level, the heart works at extra speed in the 



II Hi 



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1 us :::: 
■in 

HI B" 




PRESIDENT S PALACE, BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. 



rarefied air, and the human machine wears out quicker than 
with "lowland folk." Very old people are seldom seen here. 

The population is about 130,000 and the negro blood, so 
well represented in the coast cities, is not often met with in the 
capital. The city has a national university, an observatory, a 
picture gallery and several learned institutions. It has the repu- 
tation of being the most cultured of the South American cities — 
the Boston of the other half of America — and possesses a dis- 
tinct national literature of its own. 



COLOMBIA 



631 




^■■UJpHWBII^^^^^^^^ 



STATUE OF BOLIVAR IN INDEPENDENCE PARK, BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. 



The name Bogota is from "Bacata," the old capital of the 
Chibchas which the founder, Quesada, discovered about twelve 
miles from the present city. The Chibchas, or Muyscas, the 
ancient inhabitants of these highlands, were among the most 
civilized tribes of the New World prior to the Conquest. Al- 
though not so far advanced as the Quichuas, or Incas, of Peru, 
they constructed paved highways, threw bridges across chasms, 
erected stone shrines to their gods, carved stone effigies, were 
skilled weavers and potters, and even used currency in the 
form of gold disks. They perhaps excelled all other tribes in 
the working of gold into fantastic ornaments — work which is 
admired today in many of our great museums. In Bogota and 
throughout the uplands of Colombia I saw many Indians of 
Chibcha blood, but they have lost their ancient language and 
speak Spanish. 

Until recently the journey to Bogota was made by. saddle 
from the river, and the inaccessibility of the city helped to pre- 
serve its peculiar charm. It now has many up-to-date improve- 
ments and has recently acquired possession of the electric street 
railway, installed some years ago by American capitalists from 



632 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 



New Jersey. The original rate of fare on this road was five 
cents, but as paper money dropped in value the American com- 
pany secured permission from the President of Colombia to ad- 
vance the rate in paper to keep it up to the former value. Then 
the excitement began ! 




THE CATHEDRAL AT BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. 



COLOMBIA 



633 




MUNICIPAL THEATER, BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. 



First the motormen and conductors were taken from the 
cars and rolled in the mud. All the car windows were broken 
and the tracks torn up. Then the populace moved on to the 
office of the managers of the line. Here the United States min- 
ister to Colombia stepped in and checked the mob bent on mur- 
der. The managers, finding it impossible to operate a line with- 
out motormen, conductors or tracks, packed their grips and 
started for the office of the State Department in Washington, 
D. C. After a long delay, the city of Bogota bought the Ameri- 
can line for $800,000, and the municipality now sells tickets at 
the lowest price on record. Municipal ownership advocates 
should keep an eye on the capital of Colombia. 



634 



ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 




CALLE REAL, A PRINCIPAL STREET IN BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. 



The great waterfall of Tequendama, about twenty miles 
from the city, is the best known "natural show" in the country. 
The rim of the basin which once formed a great highland lake 
here is pierced by a river which has forced its way through the 
hills. For three or four miles it bounds and foams in rapids 
and then hurls itself down in one tremendous leap of nearly 500 
feet, three times the height of Niagara. 

While Colombia's agricultural and forest products lead at 
present in value, there is no doubt but that the future will show 
her vast mineral deposits to be her greatest asset. Even at 
present the mineral production is important. Over $3,000,000 
worth of gold was produced in 191 1. It is estimated that over 
$600,000,000 worth of gold and silver has been taken out since 
the Conquest. 

Platinum was first discovered in Colombia, and the country's 
output in this metal is now second only to Russia. It is found 
mixed with gold. Copper ores are abundant, and when better 
methods of transportation are provided, the country will rank 



COLOMBIA 635 

as a great copper producer. Coal is being mined in many sec- 
tions of the republic and Bogota itself rests on an enormous 
coal deposit. 

Petroleum deposits are extensive and conveniently located, 
fortunately. A marble deposit covering many square miles 
has recently been discovered near Santa Marta on the Caribbean. 
This solid mountain of marble, equal to the Italian product, 
rises from the very seashore, and is the largest unworked high- 
grade field of its kind in the world. But above all, Colombia is 
famed for its emeralds. Nearly all the emeralds mined today 
are from this country. The Chibchas of old mined emeralds 
here and greatly prized these gems. 

Among the many reported sites of the city of El Dorado, 
where the "gilded man" ruled, the shore of Lake Guatavita, 
some thirty miles from Bogota, seems the most likely. The 
legend relates that the chief of the tribe was smeared with a 
resinous substance and powdered with gold dust. On a raft 
heaped with gold and emeralds he was towed to the center of 
the sacred lake, where, amid the joyous cries of his subjects, 
he offered the tribute of golden ornaments and gems to the 
gods who dwelt beneath the waters. An English company has 
recently dredged this very lake and recovered, so they say. 
some of the treasure. I rather suspect it is a "salted" lake. 

While emeralds are found in Siberia and in India, Colombia 
supplies ninety per cent of the world's demand. The Govern- 
ment owns the mines and has leased them to an English com- 
pany for twenty years. The Muzo group, which are the most 
important, are difficult of access, situated seventy-five miles 
from Bogota. Of the area of 140,000 acres, only fifty have 
been exploited, so we shall not "run out of emeralds" for many 
a year to come. 

Other groups of mines worked by the ancients are also held 
by the Government for future exploitation. Colombia's emerald 
mines have repeatedly been placed in pawn by the Government 
in Europe as security for foreign loans. The Muzo mine is 
situated in the bowl of an extinct volcano. Laborers with crow- 
bars break out the face of the crater leaving a trail of green 
quartz which contains the crystals. The quartz is cut with the 
greatest care, for the gems found in the matrix are most fragile. 



COLOMBIA 



637 



The debris is then dropped into a sluiceway, the water drained 
off and the sediment searched for the deep green gems. It was 
just in this method that the most valuable emerald ever discov- 
ered was mined. It is a perfect six-sided crystal weighing nine 
ounces and belongs to the Duke of Devonshire. The famous 
Hope emerald, weighing six ounces, also came from Colombia. 
The Government has declared it unlawful to hold uncut emer- 
alds, hoping in this way to maintain the monopoly, but this will 
be a difficult matter, as stones are sometimes found on private 
property. 




JUANCHITO MARKET, LOADING ANIMALS FROM BALSA, 01 
BAMBOO, RAFTS, ON CAUCA RIVER, COLOMBIA. 



On leaving Bogota, I did not return to the coast via the 
Magdalena, but rode over to the west to the Cauca Valley where 
there is a charming little town called Cali founded by the 
Spaniards in 1536. To the south, reached by overland travel, 
is Madellin, an important city, the center of the gold interest. 
From Cali I reached the Pacific coast by rail, sailing homeward 
bound from the port of Buenaventura, the only town of any im- 
portance on the western seaboard. 

So here I reluctantly take leave both of the reader and of 



638 ILLUSTRATED SOUTH AMERICA 

South America. For the time and attention given me by the 
former, I can only say, as one does after delivering a banquet 
speech, "Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you;" to the latter, and 
the people who have framed its republics, I admiringly "take off 
my hat." Yours is a mighty continent, one of the Creator's 
greatest pieces of handiwork, and I predict that you will not 
fail to reach in final development the highest standard of pros- 
perity and civilization. 

As a last word to the reader, I would like to say that I am 
organizing an expedition to visit and investigate our lately 
acquired American colonies — Porto Rico, Panama, Hawaii, 
Guam, Samoa, the great Philippine group of islands ; also our 
dependencies, Cuba, Haiti and Santo Domingo. These collect- 
ively comprise some 3,600 islands and over 500,000,000 acres 
of land. With photographs and recorded observations of life 
and scenes in these colonies and dependencies, it is my purpose 
to produce during 191 3 a companion volume to this book which 
I hope may prove welcome and valuable to American readers. 






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